“A BETTER RESURRECTION.” (Heb 11:35)
Aug 11th, 2002
Int. In this chapter, Paul shows us what enabled these saints to serve God under such adverse circumstances. It was “by faith.”
1. They had faith in “a better Resurrection.”
a. Job, with all of his problems, looked forward to a “better resurrection.”
2. It was better than the deliverance that their enemies offered them.
a. Others were tortured (Vr. 35) A. W. P. remarks: "It is very touching to remember that the hand which first penned those words had taken a prominent part in inflicting torture upon the saints of God (Acts 8:3, 9:1), but, by grace, he was now a sharer of them (2 Cor.11:24-27).
1. (Acts 8:3) "As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison."
2. (Acts 9:1) "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,"
3. (2 Cor 11:24-27) "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. {25} Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; {26} In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; {27} In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."
3. The Resurrection is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions.
4. (1 Cor 15:13-14) "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."
5. Some saints will miss this resurrection because they will be alive at His coming.
a. (1 Cor 15:51-52) “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
1. C. H. S. said: “Is it not delightful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin shall be removed from the believer, and he shall be presented faultless before the throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing?”
6. Everyone shall rise from the grave. The question is how shall they rise?
a. (Acts 24:15) “And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”
1. (Jn 5:28-29) “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
7. How will the dead be raised?
a. (Job 19:26) “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:”
1. Job says: "My flesh", which shall no longer be liable to toil, sorrow, sickness, suffering and death; for the former things shall have passed away."
2. He does not say, “I shall see the saints” , though we shall see our loved ones in glory.
3. He does not say, “I shall see the pearly gates, I shall behold the walls of jasper, I shall gaze upon the crowns of gold,” but “I shall see God.”
4. (Job 19:27) “Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
a. (Isa 33:17) “ Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.”
Someday the silver cord will break,
and I no more as now shall sing;
but oh, the joy when I shall wake
within the palace of the King!
And I shall see Him face to face,
and tell the story--saved by grace!
--Fanny Crosby
8. Christ redeemed our bodies as well as our souls.
a. (Rom 8:23) “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
b. Dr. J. Sidlow Baxter said: "Two thousand years ago Christianity came into history singing because it had such a transcendent hope. Not all the martyrdoms by fire or sword or by beasts in Roman amphitheaters could silence that song or quench that hope.
And what a hope it is! In one aspect or another it gleams on every page of the New Testament epistles. To mention only one reference, take that word in the First Epistle of Peter. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you:'
Think of it: flawless! faultless! fadeless! With immortal bodies which disease can never touch and sinless minds which sin can never darken, we shall live there in pure rapture with our ever-living, ever-loving, ever-lasting Saviour-King unto "the ages of the ages!" What a hope! redemption of our body.
9. God’s people will rise happily while the lost rise to everlasting shame.
a. (Dan 12:2) "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
10. Resurrection day will be the day of all days.
a. (Ecc 7:1) “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.”
b. But Resurrection Morning will be greater by far than this.
The Dying Saint---By John Dickie
"Oh, tell no more about earth,
I wish to have done with it all;
Its bustle, its business, its sorrows, its mirth,
On mine ears with strange weariness fall.
"But speak of my own home above,
And speak of the grace of my Lord;
Repeat His sweet breathings of mercy and love,
There's music like heaven's in each word.
11. It will be a time of great joy and singing.
a. (Isa 26:19) "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
12. Consider what will make this day so wonderful
a Jonah had a joyful day as he left the whale’s belly, but what is that compared to our Resurrection day.
b. Daniel had a joyful day when God shut the mouth of the lions, but what is that compared to our Resurrection day.
1. A. W. Pink said: “It is criminal silence on the part of any servant of God to conceal from his hearers that a true profession of the name of Christ will necessarily bring down upon us not only the scorn and opposition of the outside world, but also the hatred and persecution of the false religious world.”
c. Pharaoh’s butler had a joyful day when released from prison, but what is that compared to our Resurrection day.
d. When the soul comes out of heaven, and the body out of the grave, what a joyful reunion meeting that will be.
“Their inbred sins require
Their flesh to see the dust,
But as the Lord their Savior rose
So all his followers must.”
13. The believer has a better Resurrection because it will be Incorruptible.
a. (1 Cor 15:42) "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:"
b. A. W. P. says: "They were offered a “resurrection” on the condition of their recantation, namely a “resurrection” from reproach to honor, from poverty to riches, from pain to ease and pleasure — it was a “resurrection” from the physical torture which threatened them: compare (Heb. 11:19).
c. The Proconsul said to Polycarp: “ Swear, and I will release thee, revile Christ; Polycarp said, Eighty and six years have I served him, and in nothing hath he wronged me; and how, then, can I blaspheme my King, who saved me? I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast thee, except thou repent.” But he answered, “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous.” But again the proconsul said to him, “I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing thou despisest the wild beasts, if thou wilt not repent.” But Polycarp said, “Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring forth what thou wilt.”
14. The Resurrection of the believer is better because it will be glorious.
a. (1 Cor 15:43) "It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:"
b. (Rev 20:4-5) “....I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”
c. J. F. & B. says: “a better resurrection —than that of the women’s children "raised to life again"; or, than the resurrection which their foes could give them by delivering them from death.”
15. The Believer will shine forth as the sun on Resurrection morning.
a. (Mat 13:43) "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
16. The Believer has a better Resurrection because he will be separated from the wicked.
a. (Mat 25:32-33) "And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: {33} And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left."
b. Vincent's Greek says: "Better than a resurrection like those granted to the women mentioned in (Vr. 35a), which gave merely a continuation of life on earth."
17. The Believer has a better Resurrection because he shall be known by the Saviour while the wicked shall not be known.
a. (Mal 3:17) “And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”
b. (Mt 25:34) “........Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”
c. (Isa 66:5) “ ......; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, ..... they shall be ashamed.”
18. The Believer shall have a better Resurrection than that of the wicked.
a. (Mk 16:15) “.........he that believeth not shall be damned.”
b. The Believer’s days of suffering will be over and the days of the wicked will just have begun.
1. (Lk 16:25) “But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
2. (Rev 21:4) “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
c. The Saints shall forever be with the Lord.
1. (1 Thess 4:17) “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
a. C. H. S. said: “"While we are here the Lord is with us, and when we are called away we are with Him.”
2. No so with the wicked.
a. (Mt 25:41) “.......Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
b. (Job 3:17) "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest."
19. Consider what motivated them to not accept deliverance from their enemies.
a. (2 Cor. 4:17-18). “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
b. (Rev 20:6) “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no power, they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Conclusion:
1. What is it that gives a widow courage as she stands beside a fresh grave?
2. What is the ultimate hope of the cripple, the amputee, the abused, the burn victim?
3. How can the parents of brain-damaged or physically handicapped children keep from living their entire lives totally and completely depressed?
4. Why would anyone who is blind or deaf or paralyzed be encouraged when they think of the life beyond?
5. How can we see past the martyrdom of some helpless hostage or devoted missionary?
6. Where do the thoughts of a young couple go when they finally recover from the grief of losing their baby?
7. When a family receives the tragic news that a little daughter was found dead or their dad was killed in a plane crash or a son overdosed on drugs, what single truth becomes their whole focus?
8. What is the final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal diseases, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents?
9. By now you've guessed correctly: the assurance of a better resurrection.