IF A MAN DIES WILL HE LIVE AGAIN

Text:  Job 14:7-14

Proposition:  Who has answered this question?

Job had a lot of problems.  In this chapter he is discouraged.  Job went from being the greatest man in the east with

• 7 sons
• 3 daughters
• 7,000 sheep
• 3,000 camels
• 500 yoke of oxen
• 500 female donkeys
• All the servants needed to take care of them

To having nothing in one day.  He lost everything he had in one day.  Then Satan struck Him with a disease of sore boils all over his body.  Job thinks his end may be near.  He would rather be dead than alive.  Job answers his own question.  He did believe he would live again.  This is the first person we will consider who answered this question.

I. Job believed he would live again.

II. Jesus said all who are in the tombs would hear his voice

III. Paul said man would live again.

I. Job said man would live again (What did Job say?)

A. Job 19:25- 26

1. Job answers his own question

2. He knew someday his flesh would be gone.

a. God said in the beginning after Adam and Eve sinned, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground because from it you were taken.  For you are dust.  And to dust you shall return,” Genesis 3:19.  Only two men escaped the sentence of death Enoch and Elijah they were taken to heaven in a fiery chariot.  The rest of us will return to the dust.  But someday God will put our dust back together and we shall see God.

B. Job 19:27

1. Job knew he would behold God with his own two eyes, not the eyes of someone else.

2. Job knew if he died he would live again.

II. Jesus said men would live again (What did Jesus say?)

A. John 5:25-29

1. John 5:25 and 26, The spiritually dead were going to come to life.  When they heard the voice of the Son of God.

2. John 5:28-29, Don’t marvel at this that those who are dead spiritually will live, but an hour is coming when all the physically dead will come to life.  Everyone of us will live again.  No graves will hold the dead.

 B. If we believe in Him we shall live even if we die.

1. John 11:25 and 26

2. Most likely our body will die, but we will live again.  Our bodies will be raised to life.  If we live and believe in Jesus our spirit will never die.  We will be preserved from the second death, the lake of fire.

3. Lazarus was sick.  His sisters Mary and Martha had sent a message to Jesus telling Him Lazarus was sick.  Jesus waited 2 days longer until Lazarus died.  Then Jesus went to Bethany.  Where Lazarus and his sisters lived. 

4. His sisters were a little upset with Jesus because they knew he cold heal him, but he was 4 days late.

5. Jesus went to the grave and said remove the stone.  Martha said, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench.”

6. John 11:40-44

7. If Jesus can raise a man who has been dead for four days He can make anyone live again.

8. John 6:50-58

9. Every Sunday we remember what Jesus did.  He died so that we can live forever.  We eat the bread that represents his body.  Jesus body and his blood is what gives us eternal life.  Without him you are doomed to hell for eternity.

10. Believing and obeying Jesus gives us eternal life for spirit and body.

III. Paul said man would live again (Why did Paul say man would live again?)

A.  Jesus lives

1.  A Solitary Grain

In April, the Sunday school teacher asked all eight children in her class to hide within an empty container a small object that represented life in the spring.

Not wanting to embarrass eight-year-old Stephen, whose mental retardation was becoming more manifest, the teacher suggested that the children all place their unlabeled containers on her desk. Since she feared that Stephen might not have caught on, she decided that she should open them.

The first had a tiny flower. "What a lovely sign of new life!" "I brought that one!" the donor exclaimed. Next came a rock. "That must be Stephen's," the teacher thought, since rocks do not symbolize new life. But Billy shouted that his rock had moss on it, and moss was new life. The teacher agreed.

A butterfly flew from the third container, and another child bragged that her choice was best of all.

The fourth container was empty. "That has to be Stephen's," thought the teacher, quickly reaching for the fifth.

"Please, don't skip mine!’ Stephen interjected. "But it's empty." "That's right," said Stephen. "The tomb was empty, and that is new life for everyone."

Later that summer, Stephen's condition grew worse, and he died. On his casket at the funeral, mourners found eight containers. They were ALL EMPTY.

2. Luke 24:36-43 and John 20:24-29.

3. I Corinthians 15:12-20, Christ’s tomb was empty.  His body was resurrected.  Our tomb will be empty.  Our bodies will be raised.

4. Christ has been raised

a. He appeared to the twelve apostles

b. He appeared to over 500 brethren at one time.

c. He appeared to Paul

d. There were eyewitnesses of His resurrection.  A court case with 500 eyewitnesses would be lopsided in favor of Jesus’ resurrection.

B.  We see evidence of the resurrection in nature

1. I Corinthians 15:35-38

2. Seeds are dead.  They have no life.  They were alive at one time, but unless they die they won’t live again.

3. It Matters Not How Long in the Grave

A closely sealed vase was found in a mummy pit in Egypt by the English traveler Wilkinson. In it were discovered a few peas, old, wrinkled, and hard as a stone. The peas were planted carefully under a glass, and at the end of 30 days, they sprang into life, after having lain sleeping in the dust of a tomb for almost 3,000 years-a faint illustration of the mortal body which shall put on immortality. "Because He lives, we shall live also."

4. John 12:24, the seed decomposes and is gone

5. Unless we die we will not live again

6. We must die

a. Romans 6:1-6, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

b. At baptism we are planted in the likeness of his death.

B. Jesus gives us the victory over death.

1. I Corinthians 15:50-57

2. Jesus overcame death and He gives us the victory over death. 

Conclusion

Theme:  If a man dies will he live again?  He will.

I. Job knew he would see God from his flesh with his own 2 eyes.

II. Jesus said all who are in the tombs would hear His voice and come to life.  He raised Lazarus who had been dead for four days.  He can raise anyone.

III. Paul said man would live again.

A. Because Jesus lives

B. We see evidence of the resurrection in nature

C. Jesus gives us the victory over death.

Closing song UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE