Blessed Are The Dead | Isaac Moreno

Good afternoon. It's great to be back.

I'd like to thank the congregation once again for the

invitation to be your speaker and for inviting me and Lexi to

spend the day together for just a little while.

This afternoon I want to have another study in God's Word

that's piggybacking off of the study you guys have been doing

in the Gospel of Matthew. See, from afar I listen and I

hear the sermons that you guys are going through.

And Brother Frank just did a series on the Sermon on the

Mount. As we know, the Sermon on the

Mount begins with the Beatitudes.

The beautiful attitudes that every Christian should have,

should exemplify in our lives. As we see in this section of

Scripture in Matthew 5, the word blessed is used frequently in

the Beatitudes. There are 9 total beatitudes and

these attitudes, these characteristics we should have,

we must have if we want to be well pleasing in the sight of

God. But I actually do not want to

talk about these beatitudes this afternoon.

There are nine, yes, in Matthew's account.

Did you know that there are more?

These are not the only beatitudes.

Are blessed ours in the Scriptures you jump to another

book in the Book of Revelation there are 7.

There are seven other blessed are statements made by Jesus.

I just want to talk about one this evening, this afternoon and

that is blessed are the dead. We've been singing a lot about

heaven this afternoon. I've loved it, it's been

encouraging, it's been heartwarming, heart moving.

But there are some other steps that must take place before

heaven. If we do not live during the

time Jesus will return, we will all die.

And we must study this phrase in Revelation 14, verse 13, Blessed

Revelation 14:13

are the dead. Here's the text.

Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, Blessed are

the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their laborers and

their works follow them. We want to make several points

of application from this passage of scripture.

Here's the first Blessed are the dead.

The first thing we need to see is that death is a reality.

It is something we are all going to face.

It is appointed for man to die once and after this the

judgment. Hebrews 9 and 27.

It is unavoidable. Unless Jesus comes back in our

lifetime, we will all die. This is certain.

This is a guarantee the Bible would say in James 2,

Ecclesiastes 12 and Luke 23. It would define to us what death

is. Death is simply the separation

from the soul and the body. The soul or the spirit of man

leaves the body, returns to God who gave it.

And this we see when Jesus was hanging on the cross, his last

statement of the seven statements.

He cries out to God and he says Father into your hands I commit

my spirit and he breathed his last.

That's what death is when the spirit, the soul leaves the

body. Now we learn from James chapter

James 4 · chapter mention

4. None of us know when we're going

to die and what is interesting is we all know we're going to

die, but we don't know what part of life we're in.

See what greatly impact and help us in this life.

If I knew, I got three more days, I got a week, I got three

more months, I got five years. That would dictate to us how

we'd we'd live with a certain level of urgency had we known.

The problem is we don't know. The Bible says in James 4 and

14. Whereas you do not know what

will happen tomorrow for what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then

vanishes away. We do not know where we're at in

this process. And Psalms 90 and 12 So teach us

to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

We need wisdom because we need to live each and every day as if

it were our last. What if today was our last?

What if you died in the service? What if we died on the way home?

What if we died tonight? What if we died tomorrow

morning? Would we be prepared?

Would we be ready? Because tomorrow is not

guaranteed, neither is next week.

So we have a few questions as we explore this topic.

How often do you think about your own mortality?

Kind of depressing, but it's necessary.

How often do we think about our own death?

Secondly, how do you feel about the fact that you're going to

die? I think I speak for all of us.

Death is not something you automatically welcome that you

long for. Yes, there are moments in our

lives when we are ready for the next, the hereafter.

But when things are going well, when we're excited about how

life's going, we don't want to die.

It's very natural for man to do anything in his power to prolong

his life. How do you feel about death?

And last but not least, how should a faithful child of God

view death? There are people who are scared

to die. Maybe you are scared to die.

I don't know if I'm scared to die, but I'm scared of not

knowing how I'm going to die. Perhaps that is how you feel.

I want us to see how Paul felt. The Bible would say in

Philippians 1 and 21. For to me, to live is Christ and

to die is gain. What a profound statement.

What a profound perspective to view death as the beginning of

something greater when so often we view it as the opposite.

Death is something we dread, but it is not how those who are

spiritually minded view it. So we have to ask ourselves, do

I view death this way? Is death a gain for me?

Do I gain so much more in death than I do in life?

If we do view death the same way Paul did, it'll really change

how we live. Because if we view death as

gain, it really is not a sacrifice to come here and to

worship. It's really not a sacrifice to

read our Bible. It's really not a sacrifice to

abstain from XY or Z. Sin, if we recognize later is

greater than here right now. But if we do not view death this

way, we haven't truly started living.

The best life is living the life of the child of God for Jesus

and not for ourselves. Psalms 116 and verse 15.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.

It's precious in God's sight. It's a gain in pulse sight.

We need to have the spiritually mature view of death.

Second thing we want to look at is the realm of the dead.

Not everybody's going to the same place.

There's different places in the hereafter and what determines

where we go is how we live right now.

There is a saying a few of us were talking at lunch about

being born again, being a born again Christian, and how

redundant that is. There's no such thing as a

Christian unless they are born again.

Notice this statement. Blessed are the dead who die in

the Lord from now on, who die in the Lord from now on.

What is that talking about? Here is the saying, if you're

born once, you die twice. But if you're born twice, you

only die once. And this statement is referring

to the duality of man. There is the physical side of

man, there is the spiritual side.

If you're only born once, and that's physically, you will die

twice. You'll die physically first,

then you'll die spiritually second.

But if we're born physically and spiritually, there's the

opportunity we only die once. Physically speaking, perhaps

better seen on this chart, every one of us.

When we are born, we're safe. Children are safe.

They do not need to be baptized. They do not need to be forgiven.

They're born safe. But there comes a point in life

when a child goes from safe to lost.

We call this the age of accountability.

And once someone is lost, they are accountable to their sins.

We must be born again, born of water in the Spirit and baptism.

And this we see. It's possible to be physically

alive, but spiritually dead. Can the dead bury their own

dead? Jesus would say only if he's

talking about spiritually dead people burying physically dead

people, because physically dead people cannot bury each other.

It is possible to be physically alive and spiritually dead, but

it is also possible to be physically dead and spiritually

alive. Ephesians one and three, blessed

be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has

blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

in Christ. If we want to be saved, we need

to be in Christ. Every spiritual blessing is in

Christ. There's not a single one outside

of him. The way we get in him is we must

be baptized into Christ and this is a spiritually safe saved

position to be born again. And Luke 23 and verse 43, the

Bible says, assuredly, I say to you, Jesus said today you will

be with me in paradise. For those who are spiritually

saved, they walk faithfully with God.

They when they die, will go to paradise.

Here's a chart of where do we go when we die.

A lot of people think that when a person dies, they go to heaven

directly. They get the fast pass.

They got the fast track. No, not so fast.

Jesus, when he died, did not go to heaven immediately.

The Bible teaches in Acts 2 that his soul, his spirit, was not

left in Hades. The Hadian realm is an

intermediary place before heaven and hell.

And in this place of Hades, Jesus was released.

And remember, a woman clung to him or sought to cling to him.

And Jesus said, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended

to my Father Jesus. In those three days dead in the

grave, he did not go to heaven, he went to paradise.

Paradise is like heaven before heaven, but not heaven.

Torments, on the other hand, is like hell but not hell, because

in this intermediary place only the spirit of man goes the

difference. One of the differences between

the Hadean realm and heaven and hell is there in heaven and hell

there is the spirit of man in a new resurrected body, soul and

spirit united once again. But this is the intermediary

place, and not everyone is going to paradise.

Not everyone is going to torment, but some will, some

will. The Third Point we want to look

at in our study is the rest that comes after death.

In Revelation 1413. Blessed are the dead who die in

the Lord from now on. Yes, as yes, says the Spirit,

that they may rest from their laborers.

One of the greatest blessings about Christianity, the whole

Bible's about rest. God rested on the 7th day, not

because he was tired, not because he needed to.

The work he had done was completed, and in the Old

Testament he gave them a day of rest.

And that day of rest, the Sabbath, was a foreshadow, a

picture of eternity when nothing else matters.

You just spend this day focusing on God.

That's what eternity is going to be like, the eternal rest.

And Jesus, he would say in Matthew 1128, come to me, all

you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and

lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This Christian life, it's wearisome.

It can feel burdensome at times. Rest is coming.

We only have a few more days to labor as we sometimes sing.

Rest a great promise, a great blessing.

For those of us who are weary of this life, we need to remember,

we need to remind ourselves when we say there is rest in the

hereafter, we're not talking about soul sleep.

We're not talking about how everyone just going to sleep and

we're resting physically. No, rest in the Bible does not

speak of inactivity. In fact, in Revelation 21, the

Bible says there's no night in heaven.

We're not going to be sleeping in heaven.

Another passage says we shall serve God in heaven.

Revelation 22 and three, day and night.

Well, there's no night in heaven, so how can you serve Him

day and night? He's just saying all day.

In fact, you can't even say it today.

It's just, it's just always for eternity we serve God.

There is no sleep. When the Bible says there is

rest in heaven, it means there is the absence of sin, sickness

and sorrow. We will be finally, once and for

all, comforted in the hereafter. 2nd Corinthians 4 and 17 For our

light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a

far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Romans 8 and 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this

present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which

shall be revealed in US. Maybe you're here this afternoon

and you're thinking about calling it quits.

You're here, you're overburdened.

It's just been like this for who knows how long, and you're

discouraged. These are some of the best

passages and the New Testament to remind us heaven is so good

that whatever we're going through can't even hold a candle

to how good heaven is. We do not want to miss out.

We cannot give up. It's too good.

What we're going through now is light and the grand scheme of

things. 4th, Not everybody finds rest in the hereafter.

There are quite a few people. They find regret.

They will find regret. And what we mean by this is that

not everybody dies in a spiritually saved state.

Not everybody becomes born again.

Perhaps what is worse, in my opinion, than dying in a lost

state, having never been born again, is having been born again

and still dying, lost, having heaven at your fingertips, but

quitting before the race is finished and losing the prize.

Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus, The rich man.

It's, it's interesting to me. The rich man on earth is the

poor man in the hereafter, and the poor man on earth, he is the

rich man in the hereafter. 2 Totally different lifestyles. 2

totally different afterlife experiences In Luke 1622 the

Bible says so it was that the beggar died and was carried by

the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was

buried, and being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and

saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. 25 Son, remember

that in your lifetime you received your good things and

likewise Lazarus, evil things, but now he is comforted and you

are tormented. The rich man didn't get rest in

the hereafter. Lazarus did.

Instead, the rich man, he's filled with regret.

This story, this account in Luke's Gospel teaches us that

those who have died, they are conscious and they're

conscientious. They remember.

They recognize who they are, where they are, and why they are

just like the rich man did. He remembered his family, He

remembered Lazarus. He could recognize Lazarus.

Here are some of the things he experienced.

He saw Lazarus, he spoke with Abraham, he heard Abraham.

He felt the flames, he experienced thirst, he

remembered his life, he remembered his family.

I think the worst part of being an eternal punishment, whether

we're talking about torments or we're talking about hell, I'm

scared of fire. There are.

There are, unfortunately, impressive things.

People have done to get out of the way of fire.

Member of 9/11, the people who were trapped in the twin towers

and rather than being burned alive, it was better to them to

make the jump. People will do a lot to get out

of the way of fire. I think there's something worse

than fire, though. Remembering what we could have

lived like, what we could have changed, where we went wrong.

Having that regret and that guilt for eternity, knowing it

did not have to be like this. That is more painful than the

fire. And fifthly, it's the reach

after death. These people who are in

torments, they are taught and we are taught.

There is a great gulf. We cannot reach over to the

other side. There is no crossing, there is

no changing. Once we have died and this game

of life is over. There is no redos, there are no

undos. Our fate is sealed at that

moment. And in Luke chapter 16 verse 27,

Luke 16:27

then he said, Lazarus, or excuse me, the rich man, I beg you

therefore Father, that you would send them to my father's house,

for I have 5 brothers. That he may testify to them,

lest they also come to this place of torment.

He remembered his family. This is so bad.

I can't change where I am, but maybe I could change where my

family's going. You ever feel that?

I've felt that on earth. We have felt that on earth and

we're not even in the hereafter. You know what God told him how

this story goes? His answer was no, you can't.

They've got the Word of God. Your family's got the word of

God. They got Moses and the prophets.

If they're not going to hear a dead man come from, come back to

life in the grave, they won't listen.

The message of the Word of God is more powerful than any

miracle. Jesus just taught that Jesus,

knowing people wouldn't believe in him, still died on the cross

because he knew some would be faithful to the Word.

Second to last, last, second to last.

What we want to see is that there is a great and marvelous

resurrection from the dead. We know about this, we talk

about this, but maybe you're here and you've struggled in

your mind. Resurrection.

How is this possible? What is the greatest miracle in

the Bible? It's not the resurrection of

Jesus. The greatest miracle in the

Bible is the first verse of the Bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

If God can create everything out of nothing, he surely can do

anything. If he can make the rules out of

nothing, if he can make man from dirt, he can raise man from the

dead. This is just something logical

to us when we think of the power of God.

And this explains Paul's argumentation and Acts 26 and 8.

Why should it be thought incredible by you, King Agrippa,

that God raises the dead? This is this is cookies to God.

This is a little thing, to raise the dead.

God can and he will raise the dead.

First Corinthians 1521 For since by man came death, by man also

came the resurrection of the dead.

For as an Adam will die, Even so in Christ all shall be made

alive. Jesus is undoing.

He has undone the physical death that spread to all man when man

was kicked out of the Garden of Eden and lost access to the Tree

of Life. Here's my favorite part, though.

I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning

those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who

have no hope. We know those verses, every

funeral, those verses. Few of us were talking at lunch.

I got some spiritual grandparents here.

I have lost some spiritual grandparents in the last six

years. For those of us who have been in

the church longer, I can only imagine your list when I think

about my long list in six years. People we miss, we just want to

see again. We just want to hear their

laugh. We just want to talk to them.

We just want to worship with them one more time.

We can't weep like the world, the world, they weep.

They mourn without hope. But we have perhaps the greatest

hope to see our loved ones again, to be reunited on the day

of resurrection, the second coming of Jesus.

And we shall always be together with the Lord.

Last but not least, we would like to close with looking at

the reward that comes after death.

Why do you serve God? Why are you here this afternoon?

You could be doing anything. Why are we here?

Do we want to be here? Why do we serve?

Well, there's a few different reasons why people serve God.

I don't know how or why you serve God.

Let me tell you why I do. I don't want to go to hell.

That perhaps is the most basic bottom level of obedience, fear

of punishment. That is biblical.

If you serve God because you don't want to be punished

eternally, that is scriptural. Knowing therefore the terror of

the Lord, we persuade men. Second Corinthians 5:10 and

2 Corinthians 5:10

11:00, that's biblical. Some people serve God because

it's the right thing to do, and that is the right thing to do.

Some people serve God because it impresses other people, or it's

expected from us. Maybe that's where you begin,

but that can't be where it stays.

Other people serve God out of a love for God.

And I know we serve God for a combination of these reasons, if

not all of them. But it is not wrong to serve God

because you want to go to heaven.

Notice what Jesus said. Blessed are you when they revile

and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you

falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,

for great is your reward in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I want to go to heaven. We all want to go to heaven.

Now if we actually dissected that we mean a quite a few

things when we say that we want to be with God, we want to be

with our loved ones who have passed on.

So this is not something selfish, this is not something

wrong, it is good. Jesus used this as motivation

for others. And in Revelation 1413, then I

heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the

dead who die in the Lord from now on, yes.

Does the spirit that they may rest from their laborers and

their works follow them? You ever seen the movie The

Gladiator? One of my favorite movies,

Russell Crowe, his character Marcus Aurelius, he says this.

What we do now echoes in eternity.

That's biblical. And their works follow them from

this life. All of the good deeds we've

done, all of the sins we've committed, they follow.

And people are influenced by them long after we're gone.

The question is, how are we influencing people when we're

alive? Jesus would say, For the Son of

Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and

then he will reward each according to his works.

And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give

to everyone according to his work.

It matters how we live. We're all preaching a sermon.

It's just called our life. In conclusion, God will wipe

away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death,

nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for

the former things have passed away.

Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work

for, but that we may receive a full reward.

And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to wake

out of sleep. For now, our salvation is nearer

than when we first believed. That's the greatest motivation

right there. You're closer.

We're closer now than ever to the eternal reward.

Why give up? We don't even know when He's

coming back. We could be at the finish line

right now. We can't give up.

Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is He who keeps the

words of the prophecy of this book.

Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have

the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates

into the city. Blessed are the dead.

We are all physically alive right now.

The question is, are we spiritually dead?

Will we be spiritually alive or dead in the end?

How is it with you? Do you need to obey the gospel

and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and

placed into Christ? Have you been in Christ but are

out of Christ or struggling with sin?

Whatever the case, whichever the situation, please come as we

stand and sing the song of imitation.