Episode 32: Are the Saints Sleeping in Death?

In the name of the Glorious Trinity.

Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever.

Amen. Glory be to the Everlasting

mercies which sent you to us. Oh, Christ the light of the

world and the life of all give us wisdom by a law and Enlighten

our impulses, by your knowledge, sanctify, ourselves by your

truth, and Grant that we may be obedient to your words and may

fulfill your Commandments at every hour.

Oh, you who enlightens the rationale with the knowledge of

your greatness do in light or my Lord are thoughts that we made?

Meditate upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times

O, Lord of all Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever.

Double-edged sword, a Christian podcast Ministry presented by

father, jernard Lazar. Father, jernard is a parish

priest of the mud edit Parish of the Assyrian Church of the East

and Turlock. California.

Here's father. Jernard in one of the concluding

prayers of the Vespas, which are the services of evening prayer

in the Divine officers of the aesir.

Church of the East, the priest praying to the Lord petitions on

behalf of the faithful. And says, may the prayer.

Oh, my Lord. So the prayer is directed to the

Lord, May the prayer o, my lord of the Holy virgin, and a

request of the Blessed Mother in the besieging and in treating of

her who is full of grace st. Mary, the Blessed Luke Chapter

118 and the great power of the Conquering cross and divine

help. And a request of Saint John, the

Baptist's be with us. Continue.

The at all season and times, Lord of all, Father and Son,

Holy Spirit forever, our men, and that was of Mary.

And of the Apostles, he continues met the prayer O, My

Lord, again, praying to the Lord, May the prayer or my lord

of the Holy Apostles, and a request of the true preachers

and the beseeching, and in treating of the illustrious

illustrious athletes The Proclaimers of righteousness.

So, as of Peace in creation, be with us continually at all

seasons, And X Lord of all Etc. And over the father's.

Again, he prays to the Lord, May the prayer and requests and

beseeching and in treating of our famous and Holy Father,

madhava carefully, cause that is Mara the first and st.

Stephen, the firstborn of the martyrs Acts chapter 6, and of

Acts 6 · chapter mention

the giant of strengths and George deal, Astra smarter, and

of mar. And here, he can name any saints

that have been canonized by the church and of all the martyrs

and Saints of our Lord be with us continually a high wall, and

strong House of Refuge to save deliver, rescue and guard.

Our bodies and souls from the evil one and his hosts.

And here, everyone repeats from the evil, one, evil one, and his

hosts at all season and X Lord of all, Father, and Son, and

Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

So praying to the Lord by the prayers of the Holy Saints, the

apostles and the fathers who have been canonized as Saints.

Allow me to also share The Beloved, the prayer for help the

priest petitions from the Lord. Oh my Lord, the help of thy

mercies and great, eight of thy, loving kindness.

And the hidden and glorious strength of thy glorious,

Trinity, and thy, right hand full of mercies and compassion

to overshadow. And be joined with the weakness

of thy worshippers from thy holy house, which is full of all

helps and all Blessings by the prayer.

Where's of all the saints, who propitiate that is appease?

Or please, you know, this is a present tense that are pleasing

to you. Lord of all, Father, and Son and

Holy Spirit, forever are men, who are the Saints, what is a

saint? We'll all Christians beloved,

our Saints, meaning Sanctified set, apart.

All believes Are Holy ones in the sense of a status, which is

given by us. Virtue of our baptism into

Christ and receiving the holy spirit.

So once we receive the gift of the sacrament of the Holy

Spirit, we've been set apart and we have virtues to strive for.

As I mentioned, we're also called Sanctified or made holy

set apart, which is a working progress, not 100 meter dash,

but a marathon or a state of being, which we strive for by

abolishing sin. And Conforming ourselves to the

image of Christ being christ-like.

We are commanded by st. Paul in his Second Epistle to

the Corinthians 7:1 to cleanse ourselves from all defilement of

the Flesh and spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God.

So who are the Saints? Those whose life in faith and

deeds, have been exemplary of the Holiness that we have been

called to those who Amplified the love of Christ, not in word

nor in tongue but in deed and in truth during their lives on

Earth 1, John 3:18. The Saints are those who

John 3:18

attained the Perfection commanded by Christ in Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5? This 48b you therefore perfect,

even as your father who is in heaven is perfect.

So when Christ is kommandant commanding us to be perfect,

this indicates that. Yes there is a level a state of

perfection one can attain. Otherwise why would Christ

demanda The Saints are those who along with the Blessed st.

Paul can confidently and rightly instruct us to be imitators of

them as they are or were of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1, and

1 Corinthians 11:1

in 1 Corinthians 4:16, Paul goes on to emphasize.

1 Corinthians 4:16

This who is this man? That is emphasizing that, you

know, by in treating his saying, I'm begging you.

I'm pleading with you. That you become like me.

These are the Saints that played and rightly so plead us to be

like them. Did st.

Paul have bets on himself? Was he blaspheming when he's

pleading that we become like him?

In Philippians chapter 4 verse 9.

Philippians 4:9

He rides the things you have learned and received and heard

and seen. That's Deeds, that's Works in me

practice these things and the God of Peace will be with you.

Who is this? Man, that is instructing us to

practice. What we have heard and what we

have seen in him. Well, this is Paul a chosen

vessel. Beloved, a chosen vessel to

Christ. We read in Acts 9:15.

Acts 9:15

The Saints are those who at the last moment of their lives on

Earth saw Jesus. As in the case of st.

Stephen the Martyr saw heaven open and the son of man standing

at the right hand of God. Jesus Christ, listen to this

pave. Our here we go.

Now, stop washing dishes, stop vacuuming, stop doing what

you're doing. And again, as I always mention,

if you're driving pull to one side, right?

Listen to this. Jesus Christ.

This is what st. Stephen saw when he was being

martyred, he was being stoned to Death.

He saw Jesus and this is in the scriptures is not a teaching of

the church in the Holy scriptures.

He saw Jesus Christ standing not seated standing to receive him

in the ultimate show of respect paying the greatest possible

honor in the ancient world. You see?

Saint Stephen was going to be with Jesus Christ, st.

Stephen wasn't going to sleep with Jesus Christ.

It's or to be tucked in bed by Jesus Christ.

Just a side note. When st.

Stephen sees the son of man standing at the right hand of

God, this is referring to the Book of Daniel where the three

friends, the three youths, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego

were in the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar saw that.

There was a another figure like the son of man between him and I

was Jesus Christ and also in Matthew chapter 26, verse 64.

Matthew 26:64

When Jesus was asked, if he is the Messiah, the Son of God

here. Lies.

You have said, and I say to you, that Hereafter, you will see the

son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming on the

clouds of heaven. And this is who Stephen sees st.

Stephen, Jesus Christ, praise be to his name.

The Saints are those who the church by the authority to bind

and loosen. Matthew 18:18 has canonized at

Matthew 18:18

Saints and venerated by the testimonies of many who have

come across experience, have felt and been impacted by the

lives of the particular. Faithful, Matthew 18, 16 Hands.

We beloved present our prayers to the Lord.

Let me reiterate and repeat. We present our prayers to the

Lord. Let me one more time.

Read a part of those prayers that I began with May the

prayer. Oh, my Lord May the prayer o, my

Lord, and every prayer is presented to the Lord, by the

prayers of the Saints. We join, we mingle our prayers,

along with the living prayers of the Saints of Our Lord.

You There's no problem in praying for one another.

No one has an issue of praying for one another.

I can ask Stephen to pray for me.

Stephen, Stephen can ask Draenor to pray for him and vice versa.

We are told in the scriptures, hold on to your seat, hold on to

your seat. We are told in the scriptures to

confess our sins, to one another, you know.

Some people have an issue with someone confessing their sins to

a priest who is in authority. Be in the church.

Well let me tell you beloved James 5:16 but be confessing

James 5:16

your offenses to one another and pray, one for another to be

healed for the power of the prayer which I righteous person.

Praise is great and that's what happens when someone confesses

he's or her sins to the priest, the priest offers, the prayers

and supplications to Jesus Christ.

Whom is the ultimate? And forgiver of sins who has

given beloved that authority to the church.

That's what the priest does when we confess to him.

However, the priest has the authority to declare you

forgiven by the prayers of the Saints, and in the name of Jesus

Christ and praying to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy

Spirit, John 12:24 sce's, 21 to 23, listen to this again, very

John 12:24

carefully and Jesus after he was resurrected on that same evening

and Jesus said to them when he appeared to them in the Peru,

peace be with you. This is the resurrection piece

that the priest offers during The Divine Liturgy at the end as

my father has sent you. These are very, very heavy deep

words. Beloved, these are those words

Jesus says to his disciples as my father has sent, you know,

when I'm going to go into this because this is not what the

program is about. We were looking to this one day.

As my father has sent me. Jesus says, I send you to the

apostles and the disciples. And as he said these things he

breathed on them and said to them received ye the Holy

Spirit. If you do Apostles and disciples

shall remit sings to anyone, they will be remitted to him.

And if you shall retain Those of anyone, they will be retained.

But back to Saint James, pray, one for another and be healed

for the power of the prayer, which a righteous person prays

is great. So, the Saints are righteous

people. The Saints have attained that

Perfection to the point where they rightly righteously

confidently will instruct you. And I to be imitators of them.

And we have a such as attained that through the scriptures and

by the faith and prayers. On our behalf, we can receive

from the Lord when they offer their prayers on our behalf.

Let me give you some examples, the Seraph initiation woman, her

faith and supplication. That means pleading and

besieging and begging healed her daughter.

Now, she you couldn't be more Gentile than the seraphim

Haitian woman who had only heard about Jesus, but look at the

faith that she had, this is what Jesus saw in.

Her faith healed her daughter at home.

Mark chapter 7, verses 23 to 40 the Centurion.

Who said to Jesus, I'm not worthy for you to come under my

roof. Luke chapter 7 verse 1 to 10.

Luke 7:1–10

He's Faith healed, his servant or his boy, the friends of the

paralytic. In Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Verse 5, we read when Jesus saw their faith, not the parallel.

X Faith, the Faith's of the faith of the friends.

He said to the paralytic, my son, your sins are forgiven you.

His fist sins were forgiven without him asking without him

pleading, but through the faith of his friends, At Cana during

the first miracle of Jesus Christ.

When the wine was finished, the Blessed st.

Mary, the mother of our Lord, and our Savior Jesus Christ, who

knew her son is through her faith.

She pleads she presents the problem to Jesus Christ.

John Chapter 2 verses, 1 to 12. And the wine is replenished.

John 2 · chapter mention

So you see Beloved the faith and beseeching of others can hear

Ill and forgive others, hence, the intercession of the Saints.

However, however, and a vehement intense, however, is now echoing

in my ears. Some of you are saying.

Wait, but wait but wait, wait a second.

Are the Saints dead asleep or alive?

Well, let me tell you if the Saints are dead costly and

cleanse me. Oh, Lord, then the Lord.

Jesus Christ is dead. If the Saints are sleeping, then

Jesus asleep. And when we read in the

scripture there, conversing their sleep talking.

But no, they are alive, beloved. It is evident from the church's.

Liturgical life that they are. I've in Christ with Christ, but

let's have a look at some scriptural evidence show.

Me in the Bible, Sola scriptura show me in the Bible.

The Bible itself is sufficient. I mean to that, let's go one

thing, though. Let's before we go on being dead

is also associated with sleeping Acts.

Chapter 6, verse 60 while they were stoning.

Stephen, he fell asleep, and in the book of Acts, You'll Never

Find the word someone died. It's they slept which indicates

that? Those who sleep will wake up?

Not a soul sleeping. No, it's just an indication and

encouragement that when you sleep, you wake up, when you go

to sleep, you don't say, I'm going to go to die.

No, you say I'm going to sleep, which means I mean, going to

wake up if God permits, unless God calls you during your sleep.

That's why one of the church fathers recommends, that before

we sleep, we pray and we say Lord, if this bed is Going to be

my two more. My Grave, then forgive my sins

and Grant me your kingdom of heaven.

Let's have a look at some scriptural evidence in the face

of the Holy Transfiguration of our Lord.

Jesus Christ on Mount. Tabor Luke 9:30.

Luke 9:30

We read and low two men were tall, King conversing with him,

Jesus Christ. And they were Moses and Elijah

who appeared in glory, and they were conversing on his

departure, which was the You made, which was to be

consummated at Jerusalem. Moses was dead.

Elijah was alive. They were talking with Christ.

Moses who had died or slept was Consulting with Jesus Christ.

Was he sleep talking? No.

God listening to the Viewpoint of a saint who was Moses?

So that's our first scriptural evidence.

That know they were confessing. They weren't asleep and they

weren't dead because dead people cannot speak.

And those were asleep. You can wake them up but people

probably talk in their sleep. But this was an sleep-talking

beloved, Moses. And Christ were conversing.

The father say that in regards to the Exodus, there's that

Moses LED and this was explaining to The Exodus, that

would come through, Jesus Christ, who Deliver us from sin,

death, and Satan, What love in Humanities that is humility's,

that Jesus listening God, listening to us in Mark, chapter

Mark 12:26–27

12 verses 26 to 27 when Jesus was questioned by the Sadducees

he replies, but concerning the dead that day, rise hand not you

read in the scriptures of Moses and God how God said to him from

the bush. I am the Living God God, listen

to this again, the god of Abraham, the god, of Isaac, and

the god of Jacob who are all dead dead.

At that time, Jesus goes on to say, he is not the god of the

dead but of the living. So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are

alive. So the idea of no life after

death is wrong, they are alive in Jesus Christ as for Abraham

in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Luke 16:19-31 Lazarus is taking into his bosom and the rich man

Luke 16:19–31

is conversing with whom Abraham. So Abraham is alive.

So the Saints are not sleeping. They are alive in Jesus Christ.

So we can't we can ask them to intercede and pray for us and

mingle our prayers with their prayers and offer them to the

Lord. Jesus Christ.

In 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 15, he writes and I will see to it.

That means he will be doing something seeing to it that at

any time. After my departure, Meaning,

after I have left this world, after I have slept, or after I

have died, you'll be able to recall these things to mind.

That is to have the ability. To remember what I have taught

you. What does that mean that he will

be continually interceding on our behalf.

And I'm going to read another verse as far as the intercession

that he will be praying. He will be interceding on our

behalf that we will remember what st.

Peter has taught and Road. In particular to those that he

did speak to and was riding to in the Book of Revelations,

Revelation 6:8

chapter 6, verse 8, we read that John saw under the altar, The

Souls of them, who was slain. So these people were dead, they

had died and slept on a count on whose account the word of God,

uppercase W. Jesus Christ, the word and on

account of the testimony of the Lamb, which is Us Christ, which

was with them. So the lamb was with these

Saints. So the lamb couldn't have been

sleeping. Jesus is not asleep, and he's

not dead, and look at what they were doing.

They were crying out again, not sleep crying.

They cried with a loud voice saying, how long?

O Lord thou, holy and true Dost thou not judge and avenge, our

blood on them that dwell on the earth.

They wanted vengeance. And the word crying out is quite

the American, the scriptures. Beseeching crying.

So you see the Saints are crying out there, conversing again.

And who are they praying about who they conversing on behalf of

themselves and you and I how long will you not take advantage

of those who shed the blood of the Innocents?

St. Paul De blessed in his epistle

to the Philippians 1:21 rights and this is very, very popular

Philippians 1:21

in Christendom. And we quote this for my life is

Christ and if I die, it is gained to me, why?

Because he's not going to die and go to sleep, but he's going

to be alive with Jesus Christ. But keep in mind, beloved.

Praise Glory, adoration worship, Thanksgiving exaltation is only

meat and right and befitting to God Alone.

God the Father God, the son and God the Holy Spirit, no saint,

no prelate, no priest, only God, praise and glory be to his name.

Some of you may be may be thinking of 1 Timothy Chapter 2,

1 Timothy 2:1–7

verses 1 to 7 who talks about one mediator between God and men

and that is Jesus Christ. Amen, that's talking about

salvation. There is salvation only through

the blood of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, which

pleased the father. There is salvation through.

No man, no saint, no profit, no Confessor, no preacher, only

Jesus. Jesus Christ, but we read the

lives of the Saints and these Saints are an amazing example of

how we can walk that lie for that.

Walk on our life on Earth to attain that salvation through

Jesus Christ. Only that's why the church

encourages that you read the lives of the Saints and see how

they how they combat it Temptation suffering,

persecution. That we too are encouraged so

that we truly do imitate them because they imitate Jesus

Christ. So that one day we made are to

instruct others to imitate us because we imitate Jesus Christ.

Let's close with this prayer in the name of the father and of

the son and of the Holy Spirit and forever.

Our men by the prayer of your Saints or our Lord, and our God,

be reconciled to us. And by the request of your true

disciples, make our sins to pass away and pardon that, which is

wanting in US. Make our enemies peaceful.

Quicken, our departed and make us.

Worthy of the excellent. Glory of thy kingdom with the

just and righteous who fulfill thy will in the Jerusalem, which

is above a lot of all, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit forever

one, Last thing. Please also don't forget to rate

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God bless you all