R1685 One Life

We all could use some encouragement and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called One Life. As we study the Word of God together, let's connect on our website as well at www.tewonline.org. Many are asking about the resource with Dr. Wilton and Chuck Colson.

You'll find it at www.tewonline.org. Now today's great teaching. Let's pray together. Jesus, we love you today.

You are alive. You're our Savior. We have one choice. We have one Savior. We have one life. Jesus. Today, oh God, we lift high the name of Jesus as we gather together, as we worship, as we celebrate, as we make the most important decision we could ever make. One choice. One Savior.

One life. You, Jesus, we worship you in Jesus' name. Amen. Welcome. Welcome, friends, loved ones. Welcome, those who worship by way of television and online.

Just welcome. God is on His throne. And we've got so much for which to thank the Lord Jesus, don't we?

You'll notice the choice is the choice that God gives to us. He invites us to give our hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus. If you were to say to me today, Pastor, what is your one prayer today? It would be that you would know Jesus. Our Savior, who came and gave His life for us upon a cross, took our sin upon Himself, was buried.

But on that glorious day, by the power of God, He was raised from the dead. I want you to open your Bibles. We're going to be in a number of passages today, and I want to share something very exciting with you for the next few moments. Let's start in First Corinthians Chapter 15. First Corinthians Chapter 15. It's a beautiful passage of scripture, and there is so much in this passage. But I want to just read to you a few verses just to set the tone today, to set the scene for all of us as we gather together and worship the Lord as believers are all across the world today. First Corinthians 15, verse 20.

Listen to what the Bible says. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For as by a man came death, so also by a man has come resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each to his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every power, every rule, every authority. I want to speak to you today on an amazing subject. It's complex. This is a complex subject, but I'm going to speak to you about one life today. Essentially, this is one choice, one saviour, one life.

But I want to begin with the subject perhaps none of us want to talk about. Would that be a fair thing to say? Death. I want to say to you, my friends, and I want you to listen carefully today. According to the Bible, not one person who has ever died is dead.

According to the Bible. I want that to just, that's a shocking statement because all of us have experienced, most of us have gone through the sadness of death. Death is one of the things that we struggle with so much. We really do because it's so final. What happens?

Where do you go? What does a person go through? And the grief that we have in our hearts. There are people today worshipping together and it's your mother, it's your son, it's your daughter, it's your brother.

It's that person and you never get over that, don't you? You know, according to the Bible, not one single person who has ever died is dead. All people who die are alive. Now, they're not alive on this earth.

They're not around us, they've gone. But they've gone to a place and they are totally alive. The Bible says that because Jesus died upon the cross and on the third day he was raised by the power of God, that we are made alive.

And the Bible shows us very clearly that there are only two groups of living people. There are those who die and live in Christ and there are those who die and live separated from Christ. The Bible uses two terms, those who die in Christ when you've given your heart and life to Jesus. You live with God in heaven, all believers. And if you've got a loved one who has died, Jambaloo went straight to heaven. I can prove that to you in the Bible. And every person who dies that does not know Jesus as their personal savior goes to a place called Hell.

That's spelled H-E-L-L. It's not a nice place to talk about. It's the least favorite subject for many of us who are preachers.

I don't like talking about it. It's not a weapon or something that God gives to us to give us something to say. It's not a reason to get up and shake your finger at somebody or to prove something. The Bible says you either belong to Jesus and go to heaven or you don't belong to Jesus and you go to hell. In both cases, both groups, those in hell are completely alive. And the Bible shows us this. Those who are in heaven are completely alive.

There is not one person who has ever died or whoever will die that is dead. How did Jesus carry us to life? Well, he came to this earth.

It's the first thing he did. He died upon a cross. By the power of God, he rose from the grave. He conquered sin, death and the grave.

He gained the victory over it. Then he ascended. He went back into heaven. And he promised us that he's going to come back and receive us to himself. So that where he is, there we will be also. So the question is this.

How do we know that we have life? How do believers? I'm a Christian man. I'm very grateful that you see me in my role. I have a role.

I'm very blessed. I'm a dad. I'm a grandpa. I'm a friend. I'm a football fan. I'm a barbecue eater.

And I don't eat boiled okra. I'm also privileged to be pastor. And I'm preaching the word of God. But the thing that's most significant to me is that I'm a Christian man. I've given my heart to the Lord Jesus. Not because I deserve it. I still think there are people all around the world that have heart attacks when they find out that I'm a... Every now and again I'll get a word from someone overseas who knew me back in the day.

And it's like I'm sitting here having a coronary thrombosis on the spot. Don Wilton, are you a preacher? There is no way. By the way, that's why I moved to America. Because over there nobody would believe me. I'm a Christian man. And because I gave my life to Jesus, yeah, one choice, one saviour, one life. I made that one choice through one saviour, Jesus. And I have that one life which is the life of Christ.

So how do we know that we have life? I'm going to take you for a very quick journey. You ready for this? And you can mark this down. First of all, turn to Matthew chapter 17.

So I'm going to do the same thing because I want to actually read... I want the Bible to tell you this. Matthew chapter 17. The first way that you and I know that we will have life is because the transfiguration of Jesus demonstrated it. So in Matthew chapter 17, and I'll read perhaps just the first three verses.

First three verses of Matthew 17. This is about Jesus. But he had some people with him. And by the way, he had some people who joined him.

Excuse me. The people who joined him in my book were stone graveyard dead people. By the way, the people who joined Jesus, okay, had been dead a long time.

Watch this. And by six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with them.

You can read the rest of this account for yourself. How do we know that we will have this? Jesus was on this earth ministering amongst us. And Jesus went up onto the high mountain, and he was changed into his afterlife appearance. That's the word, transfiguration. He was changed before them. He was changed into his resurrected, his after death body. And his whole purpose was to demonstrate to us the truth of our being alive after death.

And blow me down. Here comes Moses and Elijah. And by the way, by name, and excuse me for a minute, talking is not a single person who's ever died that is dead.

Now that's a powerful truth. I pray that we realize God has built us for eternity, but eternity with him. If you have questions, forgive the interruption. We'll be back with Dr. Wilton in moments, but he wants you to know you can call us and pray with us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Or connect with us on our website, tewonline.org.

That's tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. The transfiguration demonstrates it. And when you begin to see this is Jesus, folks, you might say, well, I'm a Catholic, I'm an Episcopalian, I'm a Methodist, I'm a Presbyterian. Even all our denominations, nobody is going to argue with the fact this is Jesus. This is not a Baptist here. This is not the Methodist. It's not the Synod. It's not the decree.

It's not the eldership or the deacons or the presbytery. This is Jesus. The transfiguration demonstrates it. Let's go to Luke chapter 16.

You ready? Go all the way across to Luke chapter 16. This is powerful stuff. Luke chapter 16.

The story illustrates it. Let me read you a few verses. I'm just going to pick up Luke chapter 16 and I'm going to pick up at verse 19. And I just say this to you, this is Jesus talking. This is not Billy Graham saying this. It's not Don Wilton. It's not the chairman of deacons. This is not your church.

This is not a Democrat or Republican. This is Jesus. One choice, one savior, one life. Jesus said there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man by the name of Lazarus covered with sores who desired to be fed with that which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came by and licked his sores.

Now listen to this. The poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's side. Abraham's bosom. This is Jesus speaking to a Jewish audience. They believed in the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

There was no doubt in the Jewish audience that no matter where Abraham was, that's where God was. The rich man also died and he was buried. The picture here is one man when he died went up. The other man when he died went down. And in hell, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes.

Everybody touch your eyes. This is not a figure of speech. One would think that after someone died that they could no longer see. Not according to Jesus. And he saw Abraham, excuse me, Abraham? He saw Abraham in heaven on the other side. Why did he have to lift up his eyes?

Because he went down. He didn't look out, he looked up. By the way, where is heaven? Heaven is up.

How do we know that? Because when Jesus rose from the dead and then he appeared for over 40 days and then he went to the Mount of Olives and he went up into heaven. And the people, the disciples that were there, they looked up. And they were struggling just like you and me so just to make sure they didn't think they had seen incorrectly, God sent an angel who came and said, why are you looking up? The same Jesus that went up is going to come back down. And this incredible story here illustrates the fact that not one person who's ever died and Jesus incorporated both those who die in Christ and those who die having said no to Jesus. Jesus wanted us to know that.

I've had numerous people, some people I know and love very much, friends, relatives, use statements like, ah, that's just all such, you know, you Christians. Or lets you know as long as you live a good life, you can live the best life in the world, you have to make one choice. I've heard people say to me for many years, well, I guess we'll just find out one day.

You don't have to. You can know today. How do we know we will have life? The transfiguration of Jesus demonstrates it in the story of Lazarus and the rich man illustrates it. Now let's go to John chapter 11, all right? Go back, go to John chapter 11. Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 11 verse 38.

How do we know that we will have life after death? Because the miracle amazes it. So in chapter 11 of John's gospel we've got the story of who? Lazarus of Bethany. So the Bible says in verse 1, now a certain man was ill. Lazarus of Bethany in the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment. So now let's go to verse 38. Let me show you what happened here. Because this man was so ill and the two sisters who loved him very much and they asked Jesus please hurry and come because they believed in Jesus and in his healing power but Lazarus died.

He was dead. I've been there. I've been actually into his tomb.

The actual one. And by the way it's just, do you know where this took place? It's right there on the Mount of Ascension. It's that big mountain on the Mount of Olives that looks down over Jerusalem. It's the same place where Jesus ascended to go back into heaven. It's the same place that Jesus is going to come back when he comes back to this earth. There's the town of Bethany, the village and this is where Lazarus died.

He was dead. Let's pick up John chapter 11 verse 38. Then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb.

It was a cave and a stone lay against it and Jesus said take away that stone. Martha the sister of the dead man said to him Lord by this time there will be an odor because he's been dead for four days already. I've often wondered why did Jesus leave him dead for four days?

I think to prove a point. And not only that but to the Jewish audience because the Jewish people back in their day believe that there was a life giving spirit that was still present up to the third day of death. So Jesus said well I'll just take him to the fourth day.

I'll even address the most skeptic of skeptics about life after death. And in verse 40 Jesus said did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus lift up his eyes and said Father I thank you.

You always hear me. And we find this amazing thing. Jesus looks into the cave and he stands in the cave and he says Lazarus. Now remember this man's been dead for how long?

Four days. Lazarus by name come forth. These things are not easy to understand and you may struggle to understand these things. But that's the beauty about knowing Jesus because when you give your heart to Jesus the Spirit of God takes hold of you and he guides you into all truth. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton preaching and teaching from the pulpit now as he steps into the studio.

Open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart in Jesus name. My friend I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just gave your life to Christ welcome to the family of God or perhaps rededicated your life. Dr. Wilton wants to pray for you and he has free resources to help you grow. 866-899-WORD is the phone number to call for your free resources. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us on our website as well at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. Did you know The Encouraging Word has a YouTube channel? On this channel you can watch over 100 of Dr. Wilton's sermons. You can also listen to the weekly Words of Encouragement, a devotional series written by Dr. Wilton. Visit us on our YouTube channel today. That's all our time for today but be sure to join us tomorrow for Incredible Women, a powerful message from Dr. Don Wilton on the next edition of The Encouraging Word.