A Raising To The Occasion Series

1. Searching for Life

There is a legend of a Fountain of Youth believed to be in Florida. The legend has different variations of regaining one's youth. Some say must you drink the water, while others suggest if you bathe in the water it will restore your youth. Some records date back to the 15th century and stories of people believing it to be absolutely true.

Twenty seven people are banking on the idea that modern science will someday find or engineer a fountain of youth. Those 27 people, all deceased, are “patients” of the Alcor Life Extension Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona, where their bodies—or merely their heads!—have been frozen in liquid nitrogen at minus 320 degrees F awaiting the day when medical science discovers a way to make death and aging a thing of the past.

Ten of the patients paid $120,000 to have their entire body frozen. Seventeen of the patients paid $50,000 to have only their head frozen, hoping that molecular technology will one day be able to grow a whole new body from their head or its cells. It is called cryonics.

As you can imagine, cryonics has its share of critics and skeptics. And of course, Stephen Bridge, president of Alcor, cautions, “We have to tell people that we don’t even really know if it will work yet.”

Nevertheless Thomas Donaldson, a 50 year member of Alcor who hasn’t taken advantage of its services, brushed aside the naysayers and explained to a reporter why he’s willing to give cryonics a try: “For some strange reason, I like being alive…I don’t want to die. Okay guys?”

Let me introduce you to a person called Michael Rae. In his own words, he is on a path to immortality which involves a near-abstinence level of food, the dedication of an accountant to approve every calorie, and an obsession with death.

The youthful, 38-year-old research assistant studying longevity and human aging, weighs in at a sparse 115 pounds stretched over his six-foot frame. He is convinced his calorie-slashing lifestyle will lead directly to a life extended by as many as 10 to 15 extra years. He explained recently in a published profile that "the aging effect is from the calories. It is raw, simple mathematics. Fewer calories, lower aging. Period."

The Calgary native, a self-titled "human test case," is part of a growing movement that believes severely limiting the number of calories will vastly extend life expectancy. The idea of youth restoration and life extension has long captivated the human imagination, from Dorian Gray’s cursed portrait and Ponce de Leon’s fountain of youth to cryogenic freezing and Botox. (http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=648868) As obsessed as these people are in obtaining immortality, how about considering an eternal God?

2. John 11.17-27

I. Some Realities – Sin/Sickness/Death

A. Sin Brought Death into the World – Genesis 3

1. “Eat and Die” (God)

2. “Not die” (Satan)

3. Adam and Eve chose selfishly and lost (coveted being like God)

4. Separation from God is ultimate death

B. Sickness Can Bring Death into the World (John 11.1-6)

1. Call great Physician

2. Yeshua (Jesus) LOVED them and DELAYED until the 4th Day

a. Decay and Odor (3 days until decay)

Note Yeshua (Jesus) and Psalm 16.10 -- For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

b. Three days of observing a dead body to be sure they were dead

1) G. Washington – feared being buried alive

2) Development of a bell on corpse that could be rung if alive – Dead Ringer

3) Watchers in the night – Graveyard Shift

4) One man thought to be dead lived 25 more years; another fathered 5 more children

II. Some Resurrections

Cross and Resurrection go together – otherwise, the cross becomes nothing of importance, Yeshua (Jesus) was just another Jewish martyr

A. The Cross Deals with Sin

1. The Cross was not accidental

a. Destined – to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Acts 4.28

b. Deliberate – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Acts 2.23

c. Decisive – that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5.19

2. The Cross Fulfills the Picture of Passover

a. Blood of Lamb – delivered/redeemed from bondage

b. Yeshua (Jesus) delivers/redeems us from the bondage of sin – John 1.27

c. He became sin for us sinners For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5.21

B. The Resurrection Deals with Death