What happens after death

LftLD
LftLD
  • 2 days ago
- The big question most of us try to avoid
- Resurrection, re-incarnation or rotting in the ground?
- What the Bible / Old and New Testament / says about heaven and hell.
- What do the terms Sheol, Hades and Gehenna mean?
- Why Jesus gives us the only hope of a good outcome to life after death.

#death #dust #faith #gehenna #Hades #heaven #Hell #jesus #lifeafterdeath #Messiah #reincarnation #resurrection #salvation #sheol

https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/christians-issues/what-happens-after-death-2/
Transcript
00:00Good morning friends. Praise the Lord. Good to be with you. Let's just have a word of
00:15prayer as we come to the Word of God. Lord, we thank you that we can read your Word. We
00:20thank you that we can learn from it. Pray you help me to speak and pray that you help
00:24those who hear to hear and that your Word of God can accomplish your purposes. In Jesus'
00:29name, amen. Last time I was speaking, we looked at some of the things to do with the last
00:35days and the end of all things, read from Revelation chapter 20 and 21. Maybe we'll
00:41just start off with reading from verse 11 of 20 through to verse 5 of 21. Revelation
00:5020 verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it from whose face the
00:57earth and heaven fled away. There was found no place for them and I saw the dead small
01:02and great standing for God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is
01:07the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which
01:11are written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it and death and Hades
01:16delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged according to their works.
01:21Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone
01:26not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now I saw a new
01:31heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also
01:35there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city in New Jerusalem coming down out
01:41of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice
01:46from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with
01:50them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God
01:56will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death or sorrow or
02:00crying. There should be no more pain for the former things have passed away. Then he who
02:06sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write for these
02:10words are true and faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega,
02:16the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to
02:21him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God and he should
02:27be my son. Praise the Lord. This raises the issues about the last days, the last event,
02:35things, the judgment and heaven and hell. I was thinking a bit about this and I read
02:39an article in the Daily Telegraph this week and I'll read you part of it. It said my near
02:46death experience was good for me. Everyone should have one. A brush with a grim reaper
02:51can help us to appreciate life more. And my close call was no exception. The author was
02:58actually somebody called Dr. Steve Taylor who had a close call to death 50 years ago
03:03when he was seconds away from a suspected IRA bomb blast on a tube train at Tower Hill.
03:09Now he lectures at Leeds Beckett University where he gives his students an exercise to
03:13focus on this fact. I gave them a date, one year from now, which is the date of your death,
03:20he says. Then I tell them you've got one year left as your last. You need to decide how
03:25you would spend those last 365 days. The results are intriguing. Even though they seem fairly
03:34typical students, young people, quite hedonistic, they still said they spend more time with
03:39their loved ones and in nature. Occasionally some would say they would have as many drugs,
03:44drink and sex as possible, but that's quite rare. They say travelling of course and some
03:49would take up a new hobby like surfing or paragliding. They sometimes say they're men
03:54broken relationships or tell people that they love them. They all put down different interesting
03:59things. So I read through the whole article and what they did not say, and what doesn't
04:04come into the article at all, is any question about seeking God and asking questions about
04:09what happens after death. It appears to me that for most people this is just a big no-no.
04:15You don't ask such questions. In fact you could say in our society, just as in Victorian
04:20society, sex was a big taboo subject, so death becomes a big taboo subject in our society.
04:28Which is kind of curious because it's the one thing we know is going to happen to us.
04:34Even if you believe in the rapture, that's kind of death because you're taken out of
04:37this world into a new world in which you have a new body and you, in a sense, go to be with
04:42the Lord, which is the same as what happens when you die in faith. So when it comes to
04:48death, the wrong certainty you have in life, what do you do to prepare for it? You'd think
04:53that actually the students would think about, well what's going to happen to me after I
04:57die? Nobody said anything about it. Now maybe some of them did say, but the professor who
05:01was probably an agnostic atheist didn't put it down. But in the article there's nothing
05:07about looking for God. Most people either believe that they're going to cease to exist,
05:13rot in the ground, and that's the end of it. Some people believe they're going to come
05:18back in some other form in reincarnation, which is quite a popular idea today. And if
05:22you've done well, you come back in a better form as a good person, not a better person.
05:26If you've done badly, you might come back in a worse form as a frog or a rat or something.
05:31A lot of people have this sort of sentimental idea that when you die everyone goes and sits
05:37up in heaven on a cloud playing harps and all that kind of stuff. Especially when a
05:41young person dies, they say, oh now my loved one is up in heaven with the angels playing
05:46on a harp. I mean, probably it comforts the people in that case, but there's no certainty
05:50that that is the case. And what is interesting is that people just don't seem to want to
05:56know what the answer is. On this Daily Telegraph article, there's a comment section, so I put
06:00mine in a comment. I said, what's interesting about this article is there's no mention of
06:05seeking God in the face of death. What happens after death? This is the most important question
06:11and most people ignore it. The Bible says it's appointed unto man to die once and after
06:15death the judgment. Personally, I don't fear death because I have peace with God through
06:20faith in Jesus Christ, who died for my sins and rose from the dead to give eternal life
06:25to all who repent and believe the gospel. Got a few answers. One of them said, you know,
06:31I never really understand what such faith-based claims really mean. I know that the sun is
06:36shining into my garden, onto my garden as I'm sitting in it. However, to know that Jesus
06:41Christ died for my sins, rose from the dead, has given eternal life to the repentant seems
06:45utterly meaningless. Have you seen, touched, tasted or heard tangibly felt the said Jesus
06:51Christ? Presumably the answer is no. All seems a bit vague to the point that there
06:56is nothing there. Good luck with that. I wrote back to him and said, how do you know anything?
07:02Jesus said you should know the truth and the truth will set you free. I came to know the
07:06Lord 50 years ago when I accepted the gospel message and became a born again Christian.
07:11As the Holy Spirit came into my life, Jesus changed my life and my thinking and my eternal
07:16destiny. The point about death is it's the one inevitable thing we will face, apart from
07:21taxes. At that point, it will make no difference to you whether the sun is shining in your
07:27garden or not, because all that will have passed away. You'll enter into an eternal
07:31realm which will not pass away, heaven or hell. Jesus came from heaven with information
07:36about the world to come, which we cannot work out for ourselves and showed us the way to
07:40a better life now and in the world to come. God bless you, Tony Pierce. It's a bit curious
07:47actually that nobody mentions death, isn't it? I suppose they've been told that in a
07:51year's time they were going to have to take a journey to a place that they knew nothing
07:54about and from which they would never return. Do you think they'd use the time now to find
08:01out about this place and begin planning their journey, how they're going to get there and
08:06how they're going to live there? Let's say, for example, the country is China. Probably
08:11they'd try and learn Chinese, find out how people live in China, what to do and what
08:16not to do. Supposing when they look into the subject, they find out that there are two
08:20possibilities about how they're going to live in China. One, they'll live in a really beautiful
08:25house and a lovely setting with everything provided for them. The other one, they'll
08:29end up in solitary confinement in some miserable prison. Which one you end up in depends
08:36upon making a relationship now with the king of China or the president of China. You'd
08:44think they'd do something to try and make sure they got into the good place, wouldn't
08:47you? Wouldn't you want to do that? But so it is with death. People just switch off.
08:54They fall back on received ideas that they're going to cease to exist, they're going to
08:57rot in the ground or they're going to be reincarnated, etc. They don't bother to check out whether
09:04these things are true or not. Just get on with the here and now. That's what every one
09:07of these students said. Let's get on with the here and now. Let's try and make our lives
09:10a bit better here now. But the professors said they're going to come to an end in a
09:17year's time. So you think you might actually want to prepare for what happens after the
09:23year. But they didn't. According to the Bible, it's going to be too late to do anything about
09:30it at the stage when you die. So you have to make the choice now about where you're
09:34going to go. And we've got one source of reliable information about this. This book. Got lots
09:43of other sources of information, which are speculations by humans, or some kind of deceiving
09:49ideas which are put into their minds by devils. Because God knows what's going to happen after
09:54we die, but the devil does also. And he puts all kinds of phony ideas like reincarnation,
10:00like some of the stuff you get in the Bhagavad Gita or even in the Koran, which are giving
10:04some ideas about life after death, but false ideas and leading people astray. But it's
10:09only the Bible who can tell you what is the truth. The reason is, of course, because we
10:14can't work it out. No one's been there. No one's come back to tell us what it's like
10:19there. Except for one person. Who's that? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has come from there.
10:27He's come from heaven. He's died, he's been buried, he's risen from the dead. And by the
10:33Holy Spirit he can tell us what we need to know about life after death. We can never
10:38work it out by our own reasoning or by our own inquiry. Only by what God tells us. Now
10:44Jesus actually assures us that there is a life after death. So he can speak with authority
10:49because he's come from the other side, from heaven, to tell us about the Kingdom of God
10:54and how to get into it. So we should pay attention to him. No others. They're just speculating
11:01out of their own imagination. And they're going to get it wrong if they don't come to
11:04Jesus because they're going to be led astray by evil spirits who will give them false ideas.
11:11And by the way, the devil really does exist. And he wants to get as many people into hell
11:15as he can and prevent them from going to heaven. Now Jesus said these words from John's Gospel,
11:23John chapter 5, verse 24,
11:54Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear
11:58his voice and come forth, those who've done good to the resurrection of life, those who've
12:05done evil to the resurrection of condemnation, or damnation in the authorised version. I
12:11can of myself do nothing, as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do
12:15not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. Jesus here tells us that
12:22there will be a general resurrection, that the hour is going to come when the dead will
12:26hear the voice of the Son of God and will be raised from their graves to eternal life.
12:33What happens if you're cremated? Well, I guess the same will happen. Personally, I'd advise
12:37being buried because that's more biblical. But God's able to put your atoms of your body
12:42together in a new body, whatever the state is when you die. But there are two possibilities,
12:49resurrection to life, or to condemnation. And as I said, condemnation in the authorised
12:54version is damnation. And Jesus says he has authority as the Son of God, he's equal with
13:01the Father, he has authority to judge, and the authority has been committed to him. Not
13:08to Mohammed, not to Buddha, not to anybody else, but only to Jesus, because he's the
13:12Son of God. That's why you have to pay attention to what Jesus says. So if you want a good
13:17experience after death, get on the right side of Jesus. John chapter 11, Jesus speaking
13:26to Martha, the time when Lazarus has died. Verse 20, Then Martha, as soon as she heard
13:35that Jesus was coming, went to met him, and Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha
13:40said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now
13:44I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother
13:49will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection
13:54at the last day. Jesus said to her, I'm the resurrection of the life. He who believes
13:59in me, though he may die, he shall live. Whoever believes and whoever lives and believes in
14:04me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you
14:10are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. So Jesus says,
14:16I'm the resurrection of the life. If you want to have this resurrection life, you have to
14:19come through Jesus. He says that if you believe this, if you believe that Jesus is the Messiah,
14:26the Son of God, you're going to have this life. Which tells you that the important qualification
14:31to going to be with the Lord forever is our faith in Jesus Christ. Quite simple. That
14:40determines our eternal destiny. And the reason is because Jesus has paid the price for sin,
14:45which keeps us out of heaven on the cross when he bore the sins of the anger of God
14:50against the sin of the world upon himself on the cross and rose again from the dead.
14:55No one else has done that. Buddha didn't do it. Mohammed didn't do it. Even Moses didn't
15:00do it. But Jesus did it. And Jesus is the one who can therefore open the way for us
15:04to eternal life through faith in Jesus. And this information is given to us supremely
15:11through the New Testament. So the New Testament fills in some of the gaps which are there
15:15in the Old Testament by revealing to us the final revelation of God, which comes through
15:20Jesus the Messiah. And it is the final revelation. There's nothing else which is going to come
15:24after this. We can have interpretations of it, but there's going to be no new revelation
15:28given. That's why the Muslims are on the wrong track, because they think Mohammed's
15:32coming to bring a new version of the Bible. No, there's no new versions coming. This is
15:38the final one. And in the letters of Paul, Paul writes about how he has experienced this
15:47new life through faith in Jesus and how it's changed his way of believing in the Lord.
15:56From being a very zealous, pious Orthodox Jew to becoming a very zealous Messianic Jew,
16:04preaching the gospel of Jesus the Messiah. He says, Yes, indeed, I count all things loss
16:10for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
16:14loss of all things, and count them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
16:20Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith
16:23in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power
16:29of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,
16:34if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians chapter 3. So Paul
16:41says here that the way in which we're going to know God and be sure of having a good place
16:45in the resurrection is through faith in Jesus. And the purpose of God in this life is to
16:50make us to conform to the image of Jesus Christ. Which means as we model our lives, we look to
16:57Jesus as the one who's going to be our, not just our example, but also our savior, our Lord,
17:02and the one who's going to model us into being like him. A process which the Bible calls
17:08sanctification. And Paul says that if I've done this, I will attain to the resurrection from the
17:15dead. That sounds a bit like you've got to make it to a high calling. We do have to strive for a
17:21high calling to follow Jesus, but we're actually saved by our faith in what God has done for us
17:26through faith in Jesus, the Messiah. So basically this is new information, if you like, which was
17:34given through the Lord Jesus and through the apostles of Jesus and recorded in the New Testament.
17:39One of the questions which we have to ask is, does it also find similar material in the Old
17:47Testament, in the Hebrew Scriptures? When you come to the Hebrew Scriptures, we have a revelation
17:54which is given by God to the prophets, by the Holy Spirit, and is pointing towards the coming
18:00of the Messiah. So you have, in some one sense, you could say a partial revelation, which becomes
18:06more and more relevant as you get nearer to Jesus the Messiah. One of the things which the Hebrew
18:12Scriptures tell us is that we have a spirit and we have a body. Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3,
18:20verse 20, says, all go to one place, all are from the dust, and all return to the dust. Who knows
18:27the spirit of the sons of men which go upwards, and the spirit of the animal which goes down to
18:32the earth. Then in chapter 12, verse 6 of Ecclesiastes, he says, remember your creator,
18:39before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl broken, or the pitcher shattered at the
18:45fountain, or the wheel broken at the wheel, then the dust shall return to the earth as it was,
18:49and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. Those are kind of poetic descriptions of death,
18:56silver cord being broken, and the golden bowl broken. But he's saying here that basically you
19:03have a body, you have a spirit, your body is going to go down to the dust of the earth, and your
19:09spirit is going to return to God who made it. He says also this is the difference between humans
19:13and animals. Animals have a body, and when they die, their animal spirit, their spirit part of
19:20us, their soul part of them will die with them. They don't have a spirit part to relate to God.
19:24That's why evolution is wrong, by the way. We're not descended from the animals, we're created in
19:29the image of God with a spiritual nature, a nature to know God, and to receive him, his power, his
19:37Holy Spirit into our lives. But this passage tells you that there is a separation which comes between
19:43the body and the spirit at death, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Spirit returns to God
19:51who gave it. That applies to all people, whether they're good or bad. At that point, there's going
19:56to be a separation between those who are on the right side of God, and those who are on the wrong
20:00side. Leads us into our next scripture, which comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 12. Daniel,
20:07again, speaking here about the last things, the end of days. And he said, at that time,
20:21Michael should stand up, the great prince who stand watch over the sons of your people. There
20:26should be a time of trouble such as never was, and since there was a nation even to that time. And at
20:31that time, your people will be delivered, everyone who's found written in the book. Many of those who
20:36sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting
20:41contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, those who turn many
20:47to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. In other words, he's saying here, there's a day
20:53coming when the dead will be raised, and people will go to one of two places, some to everlasting
21:00life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. In other words, speaking here about the separation,
21:07which we see also in the New Testament. According to the Old Testament, they will go to a place
21:15called Sheol. And this is where it gets a little bit difficult, because there are some scriptures
21:23which are quite difficult to understand about life after death. Remember, we're only receiving
21:27information as it's given by God, and sometimes it's not so easy to interpret it. But we're going
21:35to try and make it through what we can understand by Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, difference between those
21:43names. In the Old Testament, there is a place which you go to which is called Sheol. It means the place
21:49of the dead. Sometimes in the Bible, it's translated as hell. I think in the Authorized Version, it's
21:55always translated as hell. But it appears to be a place which both the wicked and the righteous may
22:01go to. A place referred to also as Hades in the New Testament. In Psalm 9, verse 16, it says the wicked
22:09shall be turned into hell. Sheol. Place of the dead. Place where the wicked go to. But in Psalm 116,
22:20which is a psalm which is speaking about life after death as well, and which is written by somebody
22:25who is clearly a believer in the Lord, we read these words, which also use the word Sheol.
22:31I love the Lord because he's heard my voice and my supplications, because he inclined his ear to me.
22:37Therefore I will call upon him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me, and the pains of
22:43Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
22:49his saints. So here's somebody who is a saint, who's saying that he is also fearful that he's the
22:55pains of Sheol have laid hold of him. So you have the possibility that both the righteous and the
23:01wicked will go to Sheol, which raises the idea that possibly Sheol in the Hebrew Scriptures has
23:07two compartments, one for the righteous and one for the wicked, which is going to come out in a
23:11passage we look at a bit later from the Book of Luke, in which Jesus speaks about this. But certainly
23:18these passages imply in the Hebrew Scriptures that there is a life after death, and clearly the
23:24characters in the Old Testament did believe there would be a life after death. There would be a place
23:30where they would go to after they died and still be alive. You have the incident where David sins
23:36with Bathsheba, and Bathsheba becomes pregnant, and she gives birth to a child, and Nathan, the prophet,
23:43comes to David and tells him that this child is going to die. David then prays and fasts that this
23:49might be reversed and the child might live. And people are afraid even to come near David because
23:54he's spending so much time in prayer and fasting and grieving over the possible death of this child,
23:59and they're even afraid to come and talk to him. Then they come and tell him, actually David, the
24:06child has now died. Immediately David stops fasting and praying, sits down and has a meal. They kind
24:13of surprised at why he does this. And we read in 1 Samuel that he says while the child was still
24:21alive I fasted and wept for I said who can tell whether the Lord be gracious to me and the child
24:26will live. But now he's dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back? I shall go to him but he
24:31shall not return to me. There's an idea, I shall go to him but he shall not return to me. In other words,
24:37there is an expectation that there is a place you go to where you may even meet with people you know
24:42from before. We also have the incident in 1 Samuel 28 where Saul goes to visit a medium and conjures
24:51up Samuel. Kind of a strange story, but Saul at this point has gone far away from God and he's
25:00fearful that he's going to face a battle which he may lose. And he goes to a medium and asks the
25:08medium to summon up Samuel. And to the great surprise of the medium, Samuel actually appears.
25:17And Samuel says, so Saul says to the medium what is his form? And she said an old man is coming up
25:26and he's covered in a mantle. And Saul perceived it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the
25:32ground and bowed down. Now Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? The Lord
25:38will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines and tomorrow you and your sons
25:43will be with me, i.e. in the place of the dead. Now this is a curious story because we're not supposed
25:49to deal with mediums, but in this incident Samuel actually appears. And if you read the story,
25:55actually the medium is frightened by this and rather surprised because she suddenly realizes
26:00it's not just what usually happens when she tries to conjure up the spirit of the dead, but the actual
26:04person appears in the person of Samuel. Strange story. I won't try to explain it too much, but I will tell
26:10you that you mustn't try and contact the dead, by the way. In the passage in Deuteronomy, it says
26:16there should not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the
26:20fire, or one who practices wishcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one
26:27who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all these things are
26:33an abomination to the Lord, because of these abominations the Lord your God drives out them
26:38from before you. We must not attempt to communicate with the dead. If you do, then you end up
26:46communicating not with the dead, but with a demon impersonating the dead person. That's why the medium
26:51was kind of surprised when Samuel in person turned up. Got more than she bargained for. And of
26:57course, spiritist mediums do get things right sometimes about a dead person, because the evil
27:02spirit is able to give them that information. But remember, it's forbidden by God, forbidden in the
27:07Scripture. But it does show you that there is a place of the dead, where the dead go to. And the
27:17Old Testament implies also beyond this that there is a heaven and a hell. Not many references to this,
27:23but one or two. There's one in Isaiah chapter 66, the last verses of Isaiah, actually, the whole end
27:29of the prophecy, where he says, As the new heavens and new earth which I make shall remain before you,
27:35says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass from one
27:40new moon to another, from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall worship before me, says the Lord.
27:45They shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who've transgressed against me, for their
27:50worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. They should be in abhorrence to all flesh.
27:56New heavens and a new earth, Revelation 21, talking about the fire and the worm not dying. Jesus said
28:05those words pretty much exactly when he described hell in Mark's Gospel. So we have this information
28:12from the Old Testament. I'm just showing you that it's there in the Old Testament, but it's revealed
28:17in much more greater detail when we come to the New Testament. When we come to the New Testament,
28:22what do we learn? First of all, in the New Testament, you'll find that there are two words
28:28which are used. One is Hades and the other is Gehenna in the Greek text. Gehenna always means
28:38the place of punishment. It means what we understand to be hell, a place of burning, a place you don't
28:45want to go to. Hades actually means the place of the dead. It's pretty much the same idea as you
28:53have in the Old Testament with Sheol. It can be the place of the dead, both good and bad parts. You have
29:01one story which Jesus gives, which is more than a parable really, it's perhaps an account of
29:07something which really happened, in Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16, verse 19. There was a certain
29:21rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a
29:27certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the
29:34crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Wherever the dogs came and licked his sores, so it
29:40was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also
29:45died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off
29:51and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus
29:57that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame.
30:01But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise
30:08Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And beside all this, between us
30:14and you, there's a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can
30:19those from there pass to us. And he said, I beg you, Father, that you would send him to my father's
30:26house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of
30:30torment. Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, no,
30:36Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to them, if
30:41they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded that one rises from the
30:46dead. So here you have a description which Jesus gives of the place called Hades. You've got two
30:54compartments in it, one which is described as being Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus goes. The
31:00good place. And you have a bad place, where the rich man goes, where he's tormented. And there's a
31:08great gulf between the two, and you can't pass from one to the other. Now, there's certain
31:14differences, actually, in this passage between the description of heaven and hell you have in
31:19Revelation. When you get to heaven in Revelation, there seems to be no consciousness of anything
31:26which has passed before. Here there is some consciousness of the fact that there is this
31:31gulf between the good part and the bad part of Hades. It's all a bit mysterious, and we, I say,
31:40we just have these snippets in the Bible. We can try and find out a little bit about them,
31:44but let's carry on, because there's another passage about Hades which is very significant.
31:50In Peter's speech on Pentecost, after the resurrection of Jesus, Peter is explained
32:00how the Holy Spirit's come, and how Jesus died and rose from the dead. And as he's speaking
32:06about the resurrection of Jesus, he locates the passage in the Old Testament, in Psalm 16,
32:45it's Jesus. And Peter relates this to Jesus. He says that my soul will not be left in Hades,
32:53nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Now, if you go to the Authorized Version again,
32:59this will be saying, my soul will not be left in hell. But we have a bit of a problem if it
33:03is Gehenna, because Gehenna is the place of punishment, and nobody gets out of Gehenna.
33:09And Jesus, who is the Holy One, cannot actually go into the Lake of Fire,
33:14can't go into Gehenna. Not possible. I know that some priests, some false prophets,
33:23in my opinion, have the idea that Jesus went and was tormented by the devil for three days
33:27in hell, and then defeated them and came up. I think it was some man's name, Copeland,
33:32Kenneth Copeland says something like that. And he was born again in hell. That's not true. Jesus
33:38cannot go into hell in this way. He could go into Hades, and particularly into the good part
33:45of Hades. And in my understanding, that's what happened between the death of the cross and the
33:51resurrection. Jesus went into this good compartment, if you like, of Hades. And this is a little bit
33:59speculative, but it may just give some light on this mysterious passage in the book of Peter,
34:05where we read that 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18, for Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the
34:12unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit,
34:17by whom he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once
34:22the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which
34:27a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. The word which is used for preach there
34:33is made an announcement. Did he make some announcement which caused the place to be opened
34:39up? Again, it's a bit difficult, because he says those preach to the spirits who formerly were
34:44disobedient. So these are the bad guys, or the good guys he's speaking to. Well, they're just the people
34:48who didn't know too much about it, and Jesus went and preached them, and explained the gospel to
34:53them. I don't know, because that's all we've got in the text. But some say that he actually then
35:00opened up the good side of Hades, and the people who were in there were opened up and went to
35:08heaven. Now, that's a possibility. At that point, the good part of Hades became empty. They also
35:15explain another curious and difficult scripture in Matthew chapter 27, when the point of the cross,
35:25it says, then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earthquakes
35:29and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had
35:34fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the
35:39holy city and appeared to many. Again, many people trouble that scripture and can't understand what
35:45it means. But if it is that he opened up the good part of Hades, and the good people came out and
35:52suddenly appeared, then that's a possibility. That's speculation, by the way, so don't build any
35:57doctrines about it. And if you disagree with it and say Tony Pierce is speaking heresy, then I'm
36:01not saying that this is definitely what it means, but it's just a possibility. And we see that there
36:05was something which happened between the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection in the
36:12unseen realm, which caused a change to take place there. That does seem to be in the scriptures.
36:19Okay, so let's get away from what is a bit speculative and look at what is actually certain.
36:27What is certain from the New Testament is that this will take place. Hebrews chapter 9 is appointed
36:35unto man to die once. Notice it's once, by the way, it's not many times, so that rules out
36:41reincarnation. Appointed unto men to die once, but after this the judgment. So Christ was offered once
36:49to bear the sins of many. Now that rules out the Catholic doctrine of the mass, by the way. Jesus
36:54can't be offered over and over again in the mass. He made one final sacrifice. That was it. Enough.
37:00Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a
37:06second time, apart from death, apart from sin, for salvation. So this is a certain scripture.
37:12Ones I've just given you before are debatable. This one is certain. It says appointed unto man to
37:20die once. You're going to have one life, one death, and after death comes the judgment. And also we
37:28read in Thessalonians that there'll be some event which is called the rapture of the church, which
37:34is actually the first stage of the resurrection of the dead, if you read it in context. On
37:40Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
37:46those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if you believe that
37:51Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we
37:58say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord
38:03will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a
38:07shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
38:11first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
38:16the Lord in the air. Thus we should always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these
38:22words. Okay, so at some point in the future, perhaps the not-too-distant future, this event
38:27will take place when the trumpet will sound, the Lord will descend from heaven, and the dead in
38:34Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive will be caught up to meet them in the clouds to meet
38:39the Lord in the event which is sometimes called the rapture of the church. So I said earlier, if
38:44you look at this in a sense, the rapture is a kind of death, because you go from being in this world
38:49to another world, you leave behind this body, and you put on a new body. So there's a change which
38:56takes place in your body which is going to be the equivalent to what happens when you die. Also we're
39:03told that it could happen at any time, so we need to be ready for it. Likewise the moment of our death
39:08could happen at any time, so we need to be ready for that. And there is a sequence of events which
39:15follows. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 tells us that you're going to put on a new body, you're going
39:21to put off a body which is subject to mortality and to death and decay, and you put on a new body
39:29which will not be subject to corruption. We will receive a new body which will be immortal and
39:35incorruptible. That means if you're a little bit fed up with your body now, it doesn't work a
39:42hundred percent, you can look forward to the fact that one day you're going to have a body which
39:46will be a 100% plus and will work perfectly. Have a new body which will never get sick, never get
39:52die, never get old, never have all those creaking aches and pains which I've got now, and will be
39:58with the Lord forever. Something to look forward to. Also told that after the rapture, after this
40:04event takes place, we will still go before the judgment seat of Christ. Judgment seat of Christ
40:10will not be the judgment for heaven or hell, it'll be the judgment of believers works. So that's why
40:16we want to have good works in this world, so that we can have something to show to the Lord with what
40:20we've done with our lives. And then we will go to the marriage supper of the Lamb, be with the Lord,
40:29and in my understanding we'll come back with the Lord as he comes a second time and be with him
40:34during the Millennial Kingdom, for the temporary period when Jesus is reigning on the earth,
40:38during what we call the Millennial Kingdom. That's what we call the first resurrection. It's a good
40:47resurrection. And if you're a believer in Jesus, you're going to be part of the first resurrection.
40:51It comes in different stages. You have the resurrection which is described here in Thessalonians,
40:59you also have the resurrection of the Tribulation Saints in Revelation chapter 20, of the Old
41:05Testament Saints as we've read in Daniel chapter 12, and at this point then the good part of Sheol
41:11will certainly be empty, because the resurrection will have taken place. Now according to some
41:20interpreters, and I think I go along with this, the bad part will remain until the end of the
41:25millennium. Because when we look at the Great White Throne Judgment, we find some interesting facts.
41:31First of all, in the previous part in Revelation chapter 20, we see that the devil has been confined
41:38to the abyss, so he can't deceive the nations during this time. Then he's released for a little
41:42while, and we have the final rebellion which leads to Jesus putting down that rebellion, which brings
41:48about the end of the world, the end of this age, not just the end of the age, but the end of the
41:52world, and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth. And then we have the words which you read
41:59earlier. Let's just look at them again. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it,
42:05from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. There was found no place for them, and I saw the
42:11dead, small and great, standing before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened,
42:15which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things
42:19which are written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades
42:24delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged each one according to his works. Then
42:28death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone found not written
42:34in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. If you pay attention there, you've got two
42:39references to Hades. Death and Hades were delivered up the dead that were in them. Death and Hades
42:46were cast into the lake of fire. So if the lake of fire is hell, how can hell be cast into the lake
42:52of fire? Which does suggest to me that there is a difference in our understanding of what we mean
42:58by Hades and Gehenna. Gehenna is this place, which is here, which is the final place of
43:05punishment. And death and Hades are cast into it. Now by this stage, if you follow through what I'm
43:12saying, only the wicked remain there at this time. So the wicked compartment of Sheol and Hades are
43:21now destroyed by being cast into the lake of fire. Previously this was the abode of the unsaved
43:28before the final judgment and the end of the world. Then they're thrown into the lake of fire,
43:34which is the second death, which means the end of Hades. It's no longer there. It's thrown into the
43:40lake of fire. So this reminds us that first of all there's going to be this separation, but also it
43:50gives some explanation for the kind of difference which you see between Hades and Gehenna. And we
43:56understand what the Old Testament speaks about Sheol having a good part and a bad part. Now
44:03certainly there is a lake of fire and a lot of people find this idea so horrible that they want
44:09to say that at the moment of death the wicked are extinguished, annihilated. There's a doctrine in
44:17Christianity called annihilationism, which means that once you're dead, if you are an unbeliever,
44:23basically you cease to exist. I would like to believe that because it's much less painful
44:31than thinking that people actually go to hell. But the Bible doesn't say so. Jesus in Mark chapter
44:3816, Mark chapter 9, sorry, Mark chapter 9 verse 42 says, whoever causes one of these little ones
44:46who believes in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck
44:52and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter
44:58into life maimed rather than having two hands, to go to hell into the fire that shall never be
45:04quenched. Where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. If your foot causes you to
45:10sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame than having two feet to be cast into hell,
45:15into the fire that shall never be quenched. Where their worm does not die and their fire is not
45:19quenched. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It's better for you to enter into the kingdom
45:24of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell where their worm does not die
45:29and their fire is not quenched. Very solemn words from Jesus. Now clearly he's not saying go around
45:36cutting your hand off or plucking your eyes out. Speaking here perhaps figuratively, if you see
45:42yourself, your hand causing you to do something which is sinful, cut that practice out. If your
45:48eye takes you looking to something which you shouldn't be looking at, like pornography, cut
45:53it out. Don't do that. But he's saying that there is a consequence for doing these things and the
45:59consequence which he speaks about is an eternal place of punishment. Above all you don't want to
46:05go there and you don't have to go there. But the Bible actually says that it's there, it does exist.
46:11And it's a very solemn subject and we don't like to think about it. Perhaps that's one reason why
46:17these students in the book, which I said in the beginning, they just want to talk about things
46:21on this world and not to think about what may happen in the world to come. But if you don't
46:27think about it and if you don't deal with it now, the Bible tells you you're going to suffer when you
46:33get there. So now's the day of salvation. Now's the day when we have to put it right and get right
46:37with God and believe the gospel and believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins. We don't have to
46:43go to hell. Nobody needs to go there. Not going there is in one sense quite simple. What you have
46:51to do is to repent of your sins, believe the gospel, believe that Christ died for your sins,
46:54was buried and rose again from the dead. Everyone who believes this will have eternal life and be
47:01with God forever. Now that is quite difficult because if you do that you're going against the
47:06flow, going against the perceived wisdom of this world and you have all kinds of opposition from
47:12the devil who doesn't want you to believe that. You may have opposition from your friends, from
47:16your family, from people around about you. But Jesus says it's worth doing it because if you do
47:22this then you're going to have an eternal reward. So he says take up your cross and follow me. That's
47:28what God's saying to us now and telling us also to use the time that remains to follow the Lord,
47:35to be with him and to preach the gospel so that people can go not to hell but to heaven. And so
47:43we avoid it and back to the scripture we read at the beginning as well. Let's leave on a positive
47:49note. I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
47:54There was no more sea than I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
47:59God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold
48:05the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them. They should be his people. God
48:11himself will be with them and he'll be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes
48:16and there should be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There should be no more pain for the former
48:20things have passed away. They said to me then he who sat on the throne said behold I make all things
48:27new. And he said to me write for these words are true and faithful. He said to me it is done I'm
48:33the Alpha the Omega the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life
48:38freely to him who thirsts. These words are true and faithful. You don't see them now but there's a
48:46time when you will see them as the reality. The gentleman who replied to my letter said that he
48:53only believed he saw the sunshine in his garden. He couldn't believe in anything beyond that. I said
48:59Tim there's a day coming when you will no longer see that sunshine in your garden but you will see
49:03the reality of this either heaven or hell. And it's a reality which is there because God knows
49:10it's there. And God is just and God wants to reward those who follow him. But there is also a place of
49:16punishment to those who reject him. So I said we have a choice to make. We have a choice to either
49:25reject what I've said today. Load of superstitious rubbish. Nobody believes that nowadays. Or to
49:33accept it because this is what God says. It's what God's taken the trouble to record in his word.
49:38Well Jesus took the trouble to came from heaven to earth in order to suffer and to die for us so
49:43that we can go to heaven and be with him forever. But the choice is ours. I can't make the choice
49:51for you. You have to make the choice yourself. And if you repent and believe the gospel I can
49:56assure you that everything which is good which I've told you is going to come your way. Because
50:02God's promised it. But if you reject it I can tell you also that everything bad which is recorded
50:07here in Scripture will also come your way. Basically the person who doesn't make any
50:13preparation for going on this long journey is a fool. And they're wasting their time. So don't
50:21be a fool. Make your choice now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Amen.