The resurrection is when God wakes up the dead sleeping in their graves, some to everlasting life and some to eternal destruction. And no, as some may think, it will not be a Zombie Apocalypse. But, as an assurance, did you know that besides Jesus, other people have been raised from the dead? Who are they? And are they still alive?
Sin, Evil, Death, Dying, and What Happens After We Die
This series addresses the concerns we all have: the concern for sin, evil, death, dying, and what happens after we die. Is there hope after death? When God created us humans, he intended for us to live forever in a loving, peaceful relationship with him. But this relationship has been broken by sin.
Here, we address the origin of sin and look more closely at death and dying.
But, instead of looking at death negatively, we look at it in the context of hope, the promised hope based on what Jesus did for us when he died and came back to life again.
From the Sabbath School Adult Bible Study Guide 2022 Quarter 4: Sabbath.School (See also Hope Sabbath School and 3ABN Sabbath School)
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Inviting the Holy Spirit
Lord God, Our Father, your kingdom will last forever and ever. Prepare our hearts for Jesus’ Coming so we may enter your kingdom and live eternally. In Jesus’ Name Amen
MEMORY VERSE: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the One Who raises [wakes people up from] the dead and gives them life. Anyone who puts his trust in Me will live again, even if he dies’ ” (John 11:25, 26, Lexaham English Bible [LEB]).
SO FAR, we have studied people in the Old Testament who believed in the resurrection. They expected that sometime in the future after they died, they would be raised back to life again. We have looked at Job, who, despite all his adversities, believed that should he die, he would be raised in the latter day according to Job 19:25–27;
Abraham believed that had his son died, God would raise him back to life again as in Hebrews 11:17–19;
A palmist, a writer of songs and poems, believed that God would bring him again from the depths of the earth as indicated in Psalm 49:15; Psalm 71:20.
And Daniel receives the future promise that those who are now sleeping in the grave will be raised sometime in the future to everlasting life and some to eternal destruction according to Daniel 12:1, 2, 13. We covered this in our previous lesson. Lesson 4.
If you have not watched the previous lesson, Lesson 4, The Old Testament Hope, about what happens when we die, you missed it. Go back and review them at:
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These Old Testament believers all died believing in God’s promise of the resurrection in which he will raise the dead back to life again.
But what is interesting is that the Bible also tells us about people who woke up from
the dead before Jesus died on the cross. According to Jude, Moses is the first person in the Bible who woke up from the dead. You can read the account on Moses’ resurrection in Jude 1:9; and Luke 9:28–36.
Also, during the time that Israel was a kingdom, the son of the widow of Zarephath was raised from the dead. You can read about it in 1 Kings 17:8–24.
Then there was the Shunammite woman’s son in 2 Kings 4:18–37. (Split)
And Luke 7:11–17 tells of Jesus waking up the widow of Nain’s son.
Not only that, but Jesus also woke up Jairus’s daughter according to Luke 8:40–56).
John 11 tells us that Jesus woke up Lazarus, Mary and Martha’s brother, from the dead.
Now, except for Moses, all these people were raised back to life mortal. In other words, as mortal human beings, they would eventually die again. So, they are now sleeping in their graves, waiting for Jesus to return.
These cases also help us to know that we mortal human beings do not keep on living after we die. The dead are in the grave and are in an unconscious state, asleep, waiting for the Lord to return to wake them up. This we found to be so in Job 3:11–13; Psalms 115:17; Psalms 146:4; Ecclesiastes. 9:5, 10. In none of these incidents, nor are there any other cases found in the bible that indicate some afterlife experience that exists beyond the grave outside of the future resurrection when Jesus comes to raise his people from the dead.
This week, we will look at resurrections in the Bible before Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the grave.
Outside of Jesus, the Bible speaks of one person who died and was raised immortal. Who was he, and where is he now? Find out in Day 2: The Resurrection of Moses
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