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
1. God offers the forgiveness of sin AND the promise of life
2. The cross is NOTHING without the resurrection –
a. The resurrection proved who he was: Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Acts 2.36
b. The resurrection means real living – If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone. 1 Corinthians 15.19 (CJB)
3. Yeshua’s (Jesus’) resurrection was permanent – never to die again
a. Others died again –
• CPR – President Bush’s pick to be Surgeon General was a man from Arizona named Richard Carmona. He had been a green beret, a trauma surgeon, a part-time policeman and SWAT team member. One of the exploits he is known for is an incident that happened 2 1/2 years before his selection. He had stopped to give assistance at a traffic accident. As it turned out, one of the men involved was a murderer who was holding a woman hostage. A gun battle erupted, the man fired on Dr. Carmona and grazed his head with a bullet, and he returned fire, fatally wounding the criminal. But the most amazing thing is what happened next. When the shooter went down, Dr. Carmona immediately went to his side and started CPR to try and save his life.
• Others: Son of the widow of Nain; Jairus’ daughter; Lazarus; those resurrected at crucifixion; by Elijah; Elisha; Paul
b. We are to live forever in Yeshua – resurrected!
C. The Resurrection of the Dead Has been Accepted and Rejected
1. Pharisees – Daniel 12.2
2. Sadducees
3. Mary and Martha – John 11.21-24
4. Yeshua – John 11.25
1. John’s Purpose – was so we could have LIFE IN JESUS!
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20.31
2. Yeshua (Jesus) was raised from the dead and we will be, too – so what?
a. The Past Resurrection of Yeshua and our future resurrections are the basis for PRESENT ACTION – The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11.44 – became a spokesman for Yeshua (Jesus)
1) Transformation from SELF-SEEKING to God-Honoring and People-Serving
2) There will be rewards at the resurrection – Luke 14.13-14
3) Raised in Newness of Life (symbolically in baptism, Romans 6.1-4, – one day in reality)
a) God does not transform us to raise us up, but to send us out
b) Exodus from Egypt was not to remove Hebrews from world but to bring them out to God and to the world
b. The Resurrections are the Basis for Future Achievement – 1 Chronicles 22.1-19
1) David to Solomon about building the temple
2) Invited ALL to contribute to the Temple (to be a magnificent structure for a magnificent God)
3) Make preparations
4) Be strong and courageous
5) We have been invited to build a temple – church – Preparation/contribution/be courageous
3. The Art of Living Long
Thomas A. Edison’s great-grandfather once happened to read the book, "The Art of Living Long", by Cornaro, an Italian nobleman. He adopted the rules regarding eating, drinking and fresh air laid down in that book and lived to the age of 102 years. Edison’s grandfather also following the same rules, attained to the age of 103 years; and all of his seven sons, pursuing the same course of abstemious living, rounded out the goodly age of more than ninety years each. One of them, Edison’s father, reached the age of ninety-four, and passed away without apparent illness. -- Rev. Henry M. Tyndall.
The Book of Life is God’s book – it explains life and contains life
