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Sermons

Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN

[Chapter 11-2] Let Us Live with Hope of Everlasting Life And Resurrection Given by the Lord (John 11:15-46)

Let Us Live with Hope of Everlasting Life And Resurrection Given by the Lord
(John 11:15-46)
“‘And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.’ Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him.’ So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’ And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.’ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, ‘She is going to the tomb to weep there.’ Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’ And some of them said, ‘Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?’ Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.’ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’ Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.”
 
 
Jesus Raised Lazarus from the Dead
 
John chapter 11 gives the account of the death of Lazarus as an example to explain the resurrection of the dead. The story developed here starts with three siblings who lived together, a brother named Lazarus and two sisters named Martha and Mary, and it begins with Lazarus falling gravely ill and dying from it. The key protagonist in John chapter 11 is Mary. Through this account, the Lord is speaking about the resurrection to come.
As described in today’s Scripture reading, even after the Lord heard of Lazarus’ serious condition, He stayed for a further two more days and did not go to see Lazarus right away. When He was finally on His way to Bethany He said, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Amongst the disciples at that time was a man named Thomas, also called the Twin, and this disciple thought that Jesus was asking them to go to Lazarus to all there die together. But the Lord said clearly, “Lazarus is dead, but I go to wake him up.” Thomas clearly misunderstood what the Lord was talking about, but on the other hand in some ways he seems to have been the most loyal disciple of them all. The other disciples understood what Jesus meant when He asked them to go with Him to wake Lazarus up, but Thomas misunderstood this to mean that Jesus was asking them to go to face there deaths. In fact Thomas was a man of little faith until he actually met the resurrected Jesus physically. He is the disciple who believed in Jesus’ resurrection only after he had touched Him by putting his fingers into His side.
Although Jesus said, “Lazarus is not dead but asleep,” He was informed that Lazarus had already died. Martha then spoke to Jesus in a resentful way, “If only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” As we can see from today’s Scripture passage, there was some resentment when Martha said to Jesus, “Why did you not hurry? You lingered for two long days and did not come until now, only after Lazarus had died.”
However despite this Martha also said, “Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” She too believed that Jesus was the Son of God and the Savior. When the Lord said to her, “Your brother will rise again,” Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” This belief is also held by all the saints attending God’s Church today.
Jesus then asked Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Then Martha confessed to Him, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” When the Lord said, “Your brother will rise again,” He meant it literally. But Martha still had not realized that He was about to raise him from the dead that very day. That’s why she confessed, “I believe that you will raise him on the last day and give him eternal life.” In other words, although Martha believed that the Lord would resurrect her brother and give him everlasting life, she could not ever imagine that Jesus would raise him right away. Having taken Jesus’ Word from her own perspective and digested it in her mind, Martha then told her sister that the Teacher was calling for her.
As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and dashed over to Jesus. It is written, “Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, ‘She is going to the tomb to weep there.’ Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’”
Do you also have the faith to believe that whenever you encounter any problems, the Lord will solve it for you? It’s a great faith to believe that the Lord will take care of your problems without fail. Mary had such faith; she believed that if the Lord had been there before her brother’s death, he would not have died. I wonder if you also have faith like this today.
Let us continue with today’s Scripture reading. It’s written here that Mary, Martha, and everyone in the town were crying in grief, and when Jesus witnessed this He too was troubled to see this. Jesus knew how heart-broken they all were. He shared the grief of not only Mary and Martha, but also of the friends and neighbors of these three siblings and all the Jews in that village. People there wept while remembering Lazarus’s living days while they comforted Mary and Martha. It must have been unavoidable for Jesus to be troubled to see this. It must have hurt His heart to see how all these people were crying because they were powerless to do anything even though they wanted to help, and that must be why Jesus wept.
Then the Lord asked them where they had laid Lazarus. There were a handful of occasions when Jesus wept while on this earth, and here we can see just how much Jesus loved this family and Lazarus in particular. The people there were wondering, “Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, and so could He not have also kept Lazarus from dying?” And Jesus when hearing this groaned within Himself seeing that His people were completely helpless before their deaths.
When Jesus reached Lazarus’ tomb He told the people to remove the stone blocking the tomb. In Jewish culture at that time, it was customary to lay the dead in a stone tomb. From the ancient forefathers to the descendants to come, all kinfolks’ bodies were laid in a cave or tomb and the grave was blocked off with a large stone, and in time the corpses would rot away leaving only bones.
When the Lord ordered the stone to be removed, Martha said that there would be a stench as three days had already gone by since Lazarus’ was laid to rest. But Jesus repeated, “Did I not say that if you believed in My Word, you would see the glory of God? Take away that stone.” So Martha obliged and organized the stone to be removed, and Jesus then looked up to the heavens and prayed: “Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. And I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” After praying like this, Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” At this command, Lazarus arose from the dead and walked out of the grave still wrapped in linen like a bound up mummy. The Lord then ordered the people to loosen him so that he could walk freely, and the many people who witnessed this event came to believe in the Lord.
  
 

Those Who Believe in the Righteousness of God Will Live Again

 
That there is ‘the resurrection’ means that those who have been born again by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit will for sure live again. We must realize that all those who were born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit will be resurrected for sure when the Lord comes again. God will raise them back to life and make them live again enjoying the glory and splendor of Heaven. The Lord has shown the righteous that they will live again. We must latch on to this that there is resurrection for us, and that we will live again. Do you believe that we will live forever? Do you believe that the Lord has given us everlasting life?
Resurrection is found amongst the righteous. If we are to attain new life after death and reign for a thousand years with the Lord, we ought to think about what we should do for our remaining lives on this earth. The Lord said that He would give us eternal life. Just as He enabled us to be born again, He will also give us everlasting life. We will be raised back to life after death, and we will live forever with the Lord. When we think about living forever above all else, we are compelled to think about what it is that we should live for now, what should be the purpose of our live now, and what we should do whilst we are still alive on this earth.
There are several passages in the Bible addressing this issue. In particular when we turn to 1 Corinthians 15:48-58, we can verify what the Word says about our resurrection: “As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks are to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Like this the Apostle Paul wrote in His letters that when the last trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will also be transformed.
 
 

Those Who Will Partake in the First Resurrection

 
Everyone who is ‘truly born again’ will partake in the first resurrection. As a sign of the end of the Great Tribulation, the last trumpet symbolizes the final day of planet earth. The Bible says that when the corruptible puts on incorruption, death will be swallowed up in victory. This means that the born-again will live again. In other words, it refers to the resurrection of the born-again. That’s why the dead are expressed as ‘sleeping’ rather than dead. Those who are asleep can wake up again, but those who are dead cannot wake up, and so in the Lord’s sight, our death is like sleeping; He will therefore raise us back to life. Such amazing blessings await all of us who believe. That is why the Apostle Paul told us, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Put differently, Paul is telling us that that since our death will be only temporary and we will be resurrected to receive eternal life, we should think about how we ought to live now until that time.
There also are passages in the Bible that speak about the salvation and everlasting life God has given us. It’s written in Ephesians 1:4-6: “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” As you can see, this passage uses the expression “glory” here. It refers to a magnificently shining life. That the Lord has given us the grace of resurrection means that He will raise us from the dead to live with Him forever, so that we may praise the glory His grace. In other words, it literally means that we will live a glorious life praising God for all His blessings, having received the God-given gifts of everlasting life, salvation and the resurrection.
I often think about what exactly a glorious life entails, and what exactly is meant by the resurrection. What is everlasting life? It is immortality. When God raises us back to life, He will not resurrect us into imperfection. Instead, we will put on the same spiritual body as that of Christ, as our imperfections will be perfected, the corruptible will put on incorruption and our bodies will never fall ill again.
The Bible also tells us that the lives of the born-again will be to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. This means God will make us praise Him not only for saving us from sin but also blessing us to live a glorious life with Him. What is a glorious life? When we grow old, our bodies will fail us like a worn out tent and will eventually perish. However, because we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit we have not only been saved from our sins, but our dead bodies will also live again. None other than this is ‘the resurrection’.
What will we do after the resurrection then? What will we do when we eventually go to the Kingdom of the Lord? We will live a heavenly life, the perfect and glorious life of God. Glory means brilliance, and therefore it implies that we will live unimaginably splendid lives. Such a life is beyond our comprehension, just as we cannot quite grasp just how life is in Buckingham Palace, because none of us has ever lived there.
 
 
Can You Imagine the Privileges of Living in the Kingdom of God?
 
I once had very expensive Chinese noodle dish costing over $70, when they normally cost only about $3 in most places in Korea. This happened when I visited a hospital in Seoul. I was accompanied by several coworkers, and as it was getting near lunch time, we looked for a restaurant, but we couldn’t find any parking lot. So we decided to go to a nearby hotel where parking was readily available, as most hotels in Korea usually have a buffet restaurant. But when we got on the elevator, we saw from the hotel guide that there was a Chinese restaurant on the second floor, and so we went to this restaurant. When we sat down and opened the menu, we saw that a bowl of Chinese noodle cost $7 at that restaurant. It was a bit more expensive than the usual price, but we decided to try it anyways and ordered the dish. But before the Chinese noodle dish was served, we were served with other smaller dishes. So we ate each dish whenever it was served, and the main dish was served in the end. After finishing the main dish, we asked if this was all, and the server told us that it was the last dish. So we asked for the bill and to our utter surprise, we found out that the meal actually cost $70 each rather than $7. We had thought $7 was expensive enough, but the meal cost no less than $70. I asked the waiter to bring the menu once again, and I found that I had misread its price. But haggling over the price would only have embarrassed us, and so we ended up paying the full amount. This happened because we were totally clueless; we simply did not know just how expensive some restaurant could be, since we had never been to such a posh restaurant before.
Let me tell you another story, but this time it’s about a former president of South Korea. This episode happened when President Park Chung Hee, who had come to power by a military coup in 1961, visited a power plant in Busan almost 40 years ago. At that time the road to that power plant was untared, nor was there any trees planted along the road. Korea in those days was such a poor country that many people were still relying on firewood for heating, and so understandably there were hardly any tree left standing.
But when it was announced that the President was visiting that power plant, huge pine trees were planted along the route. Actually they were not really planted, as the trees were cut at the stump and just planted into the ground alongside this road. As though this was not enough, the whole town went through a major cleanup to prepare for the President’s visit, and people lined up along the road to wave the flag. In those days South Korea was under such an authoritarian regime that people didn’t even dare to mention the President by his name. In less than a month since the President’s visit, the road was all paved. But the pine trees were all taken out to be used as firewood. Rumor had it that on his way to the power plant, the President complained to his staff about the bumpy ride, and based on this comment alone his underlings had the road paved without delay. This episode illustrates the privileges enjoyed by the powerful. Yet we cannot quite grasp it because we have never led such a privileged life.
Recently I saw a documentary on the life cycle of a dragonfly on TV. From this documentary I learned that dragonflies lay their eggs underwater, and once hatched the larvae continue to live in the water for a while feeding on tiny insects. But eventually they climb up a tree and morph or change into fully-grown dragonflies, opening their wings to fly. Dragonflies have four wings, but amazingly each wing moves independently. They can maneuver in the air freely, sometimes by flapping just one wing, and they can make sharp, 90-degree turns and swoop in all of a sudden. How mysterious and glorious is it that the larvae living underwater can fly when fully matured? The same thing happens with maggots. If you go to an unplumbed outhouse, you can see maggots swimming in the refuse below and crawling up in time to become flies. After repeatedly falling down and crawling back up again, they finally make it out and turn into flies. Isn’t this what’s really glorious?
Can you now appreciate even if by a small degree what the Bible means when it says, “To the praise of the glory of His grace”? Do you feel that while you can understand everything about grace, salvation and everlasting life, you still cannot really grasp what is meant by a glorious life, as you’ve never lived a life like this before?
Didn’t Jesus pass through a stone wall after His resurrection? When Thomas was told about Jesus’ resurrection, he was reluctant to believe the fact saying that he will not believe until he actually puts his hand into Jesus’ side. Jesus then walked through the wall and appeared before Thomas, rebuking him, “Why are you so faithless? Put your hand into my side and your finger into the wounds of my hands. Believe that I have risen from the dead.” Only after Thomas touched Him by putting his hand into the side of Jesus did he finally believe in His resurrection.
Although you may say that you just cannot grasp what is meant by a glorious life as you’ve never lived such a life, let me assure you that when you put on your spiritual body, you will be able to transcend time and space. Our Lord rose from the dead, and He fulfilled everything exactly as He had said. Moreover He rules over all creation, both spiritual and physical, and everything in the universe submits to Him. Just how glorious is this then? We too will live such a glorious life because we have been saved by believing in the Lord.
I give all my praise to Jesus who solved the problem of sin and death and rose from the dead. I praise Him for saving us from the sins of the world. Just as it is written in the Book of Revelation that the people of God will look down on the earth from the sea of glass and praise God, countless people in His Kingdom will praise God for saving them. They will praise God for giving them heavenly bodies that will never fall ill again, for granting them unsurpassed privileges as the children of God, and for allowing them to live glorious and splendid lives as kings. This are not all; as there is so much more grace of glory that the Lord has given us, we will all live glorious lives praising the righteousness of God. This is the honor reserved for the righteous. For the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, their honor is found in the very glory of God.
I myself, though a righteous man sometimes feel frustrated because I am still insufficient and many things do not go my way, but in the end I will live a glorious life. I will never die but enjoy splendor and glory forever.
When you turn to the Book of Revelation, you will see a beautiful place described there a place that has houses built with 12 precious stones surrounded by a sea of glass. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, is the tree of life that bears twelve fruits every month. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). It’s akin to the ancient Garden of Eden, often called simply Paradise on earth. This is the place where there is neither evil nor death, but only splendor and glory. The Lord has given the resurrection of glory to all of us the righteous; in this resurrection there is everlasting life; and a life of glory is found in this everlasting life. None of this can be understood unless we meditate deeply on it.
 
 

For God Has Given to Us Not Only Salvation but Also Everlasting Life, We Will Enjoy Glory and Splendor in Heaven

 
It’s wonderful enough that we have been saved from sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit while living on this earth. Yet as though this were not enough, we have also received everlasting life. That the Lord raised Lazarus back to life is the concrete proof of our resurrection to come.
Then what kind of life will we live in the future? Remember what the Bible said here, that we have been saved “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” To praise God means to extol and adore Him. Soccer fans adore players like Ronaldo of the Brazilian team and Zidane of the French team. We Koreans are very proud of the fact that our team made it to the semifinals in the 2002 World Cup. Less than 10 countries have ever advanced to the semifinals since the first World Cup games began in 1930. In 2002 Japan made it only to the knockout stage and China didn’t even survive through the regional qualifying games. If the subject of soccer ever comes up and people from other countries look down on Korea, we can now say to them, “Our team made it to the semifinals in the 2002 World Cup. Did your team make it to even the quarterfinals? Of some 200 countries around the world, less then ten countries have ever advanced to the semifinals.” Like this, just as we are proud of our soccer team and adore our players, we praise God for His blessings. With such praise and thanksgiving, we will also enjoy the splendor and glory of Heaven.
The life that awaits us in Heaven is not a humble, ordinary life. Instead it is an amazing, marvelous life of glory. Though it is hard to imagine, I would like to fly on the back of an angel and rule the dominion of creation as a son of the King. We don’t actually grasp what it means to live a splendid and glorious life. We have only a vague idea how the millionaires are living in so much opulence, but waiting for us is an incomparably more glorious life. So I am very happy.
The Lord will surely resurrect us the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Deacon Myungchan Kim is asleep in his grave. He is asleep waiting for the return of the Lord. And the Lord will come to wake him up. If he had died forever, he would have no hope, but as those who are asleep will be waken anew, a new and glorious life awaits Deacon Kim.
I don’t know exactly what you will be doing in the Millennial Kingdom. But let’s think about it here based on the Word of God. You will live a glorious life, it will be impossible for you to have any heartache or face any hardships, and there will be nothing lacking in your heart, your mind or your body. If we were to just barely live there, then our lives would be no different from that of a dog or a pig, but we will live a glorious life. Our hearts will be filled only with joy, and our bodies and our minds will be able to live in perfection without any conflicts that trouble life. That’s why the resurrection is so beautiful.
Although we may get weary from serving the Lord every day, and our lives of faith may suffer as a result, we must renew our strength, remembering that the Lord has given us new life and the resurrection, and that He has enabled us to enjoy glory and splendor. We must believe that because the Lord has given us everlasting life, we have the resurrection waiting for us, and that just as the Lord raised Lazarus back to life, He will also raise us. If there were no resurrection of the Lord, Jesus would have had to end His ministry with His baptism and His death on the Cross. But the Lord not only blotted out all our sins, but He also rose from the dead again in order to give us a new and glorious life. Through His resurrection, He has affirmed us of our resurrection and given us hope. Although it is hard for us to imagine life after resurrection, we are convinced that such a glorious life awaits us, for the Bible says that only those who are Holy can walk in the Kingdom of Heaven, a place with royal roads and palaces where there is no one evil, nor any harm, nor any tears. So we thank God for this.
Do you also believe that there is the resurrection? Those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can believe in their resurrection as a matter of course because they have the Holy Spirit in their hearts. If you don’t have such hope, then you should look and examine yourself carefully. Some of you may have a hard time even thinking about the life that awaits you since you haven’t even lived it yet, but you should examine yourself to see if this is not because you are too busy, weary and exhausted from the reality of your everyday life.
 
 
Let Us Live with Hope
 
The Bible says that faith, hope and love will abide always, but the foremost of these is love. Because the Lord loves us, He has saved us from all our sins once and for all through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, made us God’s children and enabled us to live a glorious life. We must therefore have hope. This present age in particular needs hope. Hope is absolutely indispensable to you and me especially as those who have received the remission of sins. Our Lord has given us everlasting life, and there is resurrection waiting all of us. Unless we have this hope, we cannot endure when the Antichrist appears. Although we are renewed, the world gets worse and will turn increasingly destructive.
Have you heard of RFID? The acronym stands for Radio Frequency Identification. These are small electronic chips that are inserted in products and scanned to identify them. It’s said that these chips, once they are miniaturized, will eventually be implanted in human bodies as well. Not only can scanners identify someone implanted with the chip over a hundred meters away, but even satellites can keep track of the bearer. Europeans began developing this technology about 4 or 5 years ago and they’ve done some rudimentary research, but recently South Korea made a breakthrough and developed far more advanced chips. Buyers from around the world are competing with each other to get their hands on this technology.
It’s said that in about 4 or 5 years down the road, the whole world will be using such electronic chips. The only issue remaining is how to make them inexpensively and as small as possible. Once this issue is resolved, it will be possible to insert electronic chips into everything. To illustrate, when consumers purchase products at a supermarket nowadays, each product has to be scanned at the cashier, but when RFID chips are inserted, there won’t be any need to scan the products individually no matter how full the shopping cart is. You can just pass by the scanner and everything in the cart will be calculated automatically.
Microchips are already being used to keep track of pets and cattle. Tiny chips are inserted underneath the skin of a dog or a cat, and simple scanning makes it possible to identify the owner and all the vaccination information. Similar systems are often used by governments. Transit passes, for instance have a chip in them. As each pass has a unique serial number, it can be traced back to the purchaser. Such memory chips are called RFID devices, and this technology is gaining widespread use around the world. There is now a growing demand for such technology, as more people go missing and more things get lost.
Time is coming when everyone will be required to receive the mark of 666, and once a world dictator emerges and uses this technology, he will rule over everyone. The rise of this dictator will mean the fulfillment of the Book of Revelation. I’ve studied this closely and what I’ve seen is completely astounding. Of course, it’s true that bar codes are already used commonly now. This particular technology was already commercialized, but for now it’s used on products, not on people. In the future, however, even ordinary people will be tracked. As people get increasingly nervous about their safety and want to protect their families and possessions, they will look for a way to keep track of everything and eventually, such a system whereby everything is assigned a unique serial number will spread around the world rapidly.
We must therefore have hope. The Bible says that God has given us everlasting life, and that no one can take us away from Him. The Lord has given us eternal life, and because He has this power, He will not lose us to anyone.
And the Lord spoke of the resurrection. Through His 33 years of life, He taught us that we would die once and be resurrected. He showed us the resurrection. Like this, we have the resurrection awaiting us. We should therefore stand firm in the Lord, and we should devote ourselves even more to the work of the Lord. We must realize that our labor in the Lord will not be in vain. Rather than looking at all the things of this world, we must remember what the Lord said to us. In other words, we should think about not only our salvation but also the many blessings that God has given us, and we should live in anticipation of enjoying these blessings in the future.
Although I am yet to live in the Millennial Kingdom, I am overjoyed to think about how I would live there. First of all, I would like to play some soccer. How much fun would I have, since I would not get hurt even if I fell? What about our sisters? What would you like to do then? Sister Yunok what would you like to do? Would you like to travel all over? What are you going to do in your travels? Would you like to fly around on an angel’s back when you get bored and try every delicious food there? The Bible says that there is abundant food there. It’s written, “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month” (Revelation 22:2). It’s a wonderful place.
What about Brother Myungsun Jang? What would you do when you live there? You would probably want to go fishing, wouldn’t you? You will be able to catch all kinds of fish you want. Brother Jongman, what would you like to do? Play soccer? What about you, brother Pilsu? Would you like to eat a lot of tasty snacks? Brother Jungyong, what do you want to do? Do you want to travel around the world? You will travel not just around the world but the whole universe. What about brother Dongwook? What do you want to do? Do you also want to try every delicious dish you can ever imagine? Sister Yu, what would you like to do? Would you like to travel? You can travel with sister Yunok then. Like this, I am sure that when that day comes, all of us will enjoy tens of millions of times more wealth and glory than what we can ever imagine. I give all thanks to our God for giving us such wonderful blessings!
 
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