Shalom chaverim and again my apologies for the late hour of this talk. I had to make an unscheduled broadcast this morning (#SM054) which has set back my timetable somewhat.

I left you in suspense yesterday with an extraordinary statement made by Matthew which is not to be found anywhere else in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) so let's just quickly refresh our memories again using a different version which says essentially the same thing:

"At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) who had fallen asleep were raised. After [Yah'shua's/Jesus'] resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city (Jerusalem) and appeared to many" (Mt.27:51-53, NRSV)

One thing commentators seem to be pretty much agreed on is that this partial, local resurrection of some of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), who had been buried in Jerusalem, anticipated the general resurrection of all the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) - whether at the beginning of the Millennium or a thousand years later at the end of it - that is yet to come. Almost certainly Matthew, or those from whom he obtained this information for his Gospel, would have thought back on the navi (prophet) Daniel who wrote:

"But the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) of El Elyon (the Most High) shall receive the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom forever - forever and ever" (Dan.7:18, NRSV).

Further on in the same chapter:

"As I looked, this horn made war with the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) and was prevailing over them, until the Ancient One (the Ancient of Days) came; then judgment was given for the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) of El Elyon (the Most High), and the time arrived when the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) gained possession of the kingdom" (Dan.7:21-22, NRSV).

That brings us to our day - or almost to our day, as does the final part I want to quote five chapters later:

"At that time [of the end] Michael, the great prince (the archangel), the protector of your people (Israel), shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to æonian (age-long, everlasting) chayim (life) and some to æonian (age-long, everlasting) contempt (shame). Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteusness, [shall shine] like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, keep the words secret until the time of the end. Many shall be running back and forth, and evil (or knowledge) shall increase" (Dan.12:1-4, NRSV).

It is from Daniel that we first get to learn that everyone will be resurrected - raised to either everlasting life or to everlasting shame. Yahweh's people will not be left to fend for themselves during the feiry trials they will face. The archangel Michael will fend for Israel, whether Old Covenant or New Covenant Israel, those who are Torah-obedient. All of this an incentive to be faithful - it makes every trouble and tribulation we pass through worthwhile, even if it costs us our lives (Dan.11:33) because death isn't the end of the road.

Our choices determine the kind of resurrection we inherit a resurrection together with the faithful ones at the beginning of the Millennium, to reign with Messiah a thousand years, or whether we inherit a resurrection together with disobedient believers at the end of the Millennium - or worse, a resurrection together with the wicked and unbelieving, an inheritance of faithlessness resulting in shame and contempt. As Yah'shua (Jesus) would later confirm:

"Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation" (John 5:28-29, NKJV).

So why did Yahweh raise a select body of Old Covenant qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) when Yah'shua (Jesus) was raised? There can only be one reason, in my opinion, and it's this: so that the people of Jerusalem who met these resurrected persons, fresh out of the grave in immortal bodies, would know unmistakably that the resurrection which they, for the most part, already believed in (thanks to ther witness of Daniel and Job principally) and were looking forward to, was tied to the death ond resurrection of the Man they had condemned to die on a cross.

In other words, this was Yahweh's way of making sure they acquired all the elements in the prophetic equation properly aligned, so that they would know that resurrection wasn't going to come in any other way. You either trust in the resurrected Messiah and inherit the resurrection of the just (those declared righteous by Elohim/God), or you don't, and receive the resurrection of the unjust (those declared unrighteous). I conclude from this that those who were raised - and this is just my opinion - must have been famous Israelites of old, those known to be godly, so that in the peoples' minds there could be no disputing that the righteous of old and now declared fully righteous through the blood atonement of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). Who these people of reputation were, we're not told, only that they were qodeshim - holy ones, set-apart-ones, whom we call the 'saints'.

Do I believe they were merely raised mortal - thaumaturgised? That, I suggest, is not possible otherwise they would have had to die twice, which is impossible - not allowed, not with so much time inbetween the their first death and the rescusitation. They were raised as Yah'shua (Jesus) was - fully resurrected. Where did they go? Presumably, as I suggested last time, to the same place as Enoch and Elijah, somewhere in the first heaven, with Yah'shua (Jesus). How would the people of Jerusalem have recognised them? I don't know, especially if they were from the distant past, though quite likely there were some righteous ones from the recent past whom some would have recognised, perhaps from the inter-testamental period - maybe grandparents whom they were young enough to remember. Again, we're only speculating. The important thing was that a witness was given that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) was, and is, the "the resurrection and the life" and, as he spoke to Martha after the death of Lazarus and before he was raised to life, "He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25-26, NKJV).

I do not believe, then, that the incident reported by Matthew was an afterthought on the part of Yahweh but an essential witness with powerful evangelistic implications. We don't know who was affected by this sudden appearance of the resurrected dead but the incident is bound to have caused many to both believe in Yah'shua (Jesus) and that the long anticipated Kingdom was here as an initial deposit of sorts.

Now all of this could make a lengthy sermon to be sure. Rather than pursue this line any further, let us instead retrace our steps back to Acts 4:1-2 to better understand how the resurrection is here now in some form or another and how the final, glorious, anticipated Millennial Kingdom is actually here in germ form:

"And as they were speaking to the people, the cohenim (priests) and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon [the believers under Peter's leadership], greatly annoyed because they because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Yah'shua (Jesus) the resurrection from the dead" (Ac.4:1-2, ESV).

OK, let's see if I can express this right. Yah'shua (Jesus) was, and is, the intersection point between the Old Creation (which is fallen) and the New Creation (which is perfect and untarnishable by sin). He is the focal point of the entire Cosmos where these two contrary universes converge. Yah'shua (Jesus) was, and is, divine. He is Elohim (God). He is both inside our time as the incarnate Son of Elohim (God) as well as being outside time altogether, as Yahweh the Father is. He is resurrected human being whilst also being Divine. He links the two creations in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle which is the Mercy Seat of Yahweh-Elohim. Through His conquest of death and victorious resurrection, he tore apart the dividing curtain between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, giving us direct access to the Father's world through Him - and only through Him, because He is human and divine. That's why no one can come to the Father in any way without going through Christ as intermediary. He is mankind's eternal bridge to the 'forever' resurrection reality.

When Peter was "proclaiming in Yah'shua (Jesus) the resurrection from the dead" he was proclaiming both a present reality and a future one. Resurrection life for mortals is available here and now for anyone who will repent of their sins, surrender to Yah'shua (Jesus), and receive the Kingdom both in its internal, spiritual form (which is Christ Himself) and in its outer form as Israel by voluntarily becoming subject to Torah (the Law or Teaching of Elohim/God, the Constitution and Law Book of the Kingdom or Nation of Messianic Israel).

We marvel at the thought of resurrected people running around the streets of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. For most modern folks that's just a bit too fantastic to believe, a bit 'over the top', straining their materialistim-conditioned credulity. And yet in the Millennium that's exactly what this world will be like - resurrected and unresurrected people co-mingling. Part of the problem we create for ourselves, I think, lies in the way in which we try to envisage what a resurrected person looks like.

I know many think a resurrected person must look something like a lit lantern, a blazing light, or a glowing angel, or something esoteric and 'far-out' like that. I do believe that in certain settings - as on the Mount of Transfiguration - that that's how glorified beings do appear. And yet when the resurrected Yah'shua (Jesus) appeared to His talmidim (disciples) on earth, He looked like you and me, talked like you and me, and even ate fish like you and me on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Yes, He was able to pass through solid walls, vanish into thin air, and transmaterialise wherever He wanted. He was able to take off vertically through the atmosphere when He departed this world for His Heavenly Father's Realm. Malakim (angels) do much the same thing. And I believe we will enjoy similar powers one day, as Yahweh permits. But first we have to learn to be fully subject to His will, as Messiah and godly malakim (angels) are, before we go gallivanting around like Star Trek space travellers.

I don't know what restrictions will be placed on resurrected human beings for the orderly conduct of affairs on a millennial earth or what they will look like but I'm sure our Heavenly Father already has it all figured out. We have traffic rules for our complex 21st century life so something similar must exist in the Millennium that accommodates the movement of resurrected beings operating in the supernatural. We're not told whether the resurrected qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) who appeared on the streets of Jerusalem after Yah'shua (Jesus) was raised from the dead, 'lit up', or started doing disappearing acts, or anything like that though they must have vanished at some point as Yah'shua (Jesus) did at dinner in Emmaus. I mean, even the apostle Philip was given the gift to transmaterialise in a pre-resurrected state when he suddenly turned up at Azotus after baptising the Ethiopian eunuch. And some believers continue to do this occasionally still.

I don't think we need to get carried away in our imaginations and start getting science-fictiony. Some people have landed up in deep water doing that by presuming powers through 'faith' they didn't possess and getting into deep trouble, sometimes even dying. The charismatic 'Rhema' school of theology has done a lot of damage in that regard. We do have over-fertile imaginations but I really don't think we need to look much beyond the Garden of Eden to have an idea of the conditions that lie ahead for the righteous.

Resurrection is great and glorious but it isn't necessarily something mystical-magical or new-agey. It's simply the transformation of people into what they were designed to be all along before Adam and Eve bungled their mission. I suspect we will look very much like Adam and Eve looked before the Fall. Have I imagined other scenarios? Definitely! Have I seen glorious, resurrected beings? Most definitely, because, amongst other things, I have been blessed with the gift of seership.

But it's also my job to keep everything scriptural, down-to-earth, and physically real as far as possible because we don't all see in quite the same way with our spiritual eyes, and people do get carried away sometimes. We have to communicate using the same shared senses. And the resurrection is primarily for this physical plane even though you will be able to 'do' things with it that you haven't even begun to dream of yet.

That's all I wanted to say about the extraordinary goings-on in Jerusalem after Christ was raised from the dead and the righteous of old started climbing out their graves with immortal bodies and wandering through the streets for a short season. We should not expect to see that to happen again until Messiah returns but be content with the mortality that we have which is adequate for us to work out our salvation and complete the tasks assigned to us by the Creator. That doesn't, though, mean that the dead won't continue to be raised back to mortalality for a little season longer.

I want, above all, for people to have their feet firmly planted on the ground and not get their heads lost in the clouds where they can be no earthly good. We've got crops to plant, toilets to clean, cooking to be done, jobs to go to, families to take care off, and evangelism to be done, and that means getting our hands soiled and working hard. We are to live out the Besorah (Gospel) in those circumstances, not in cloud cuckooland somewhere in the desert or on a mountain top, save for the occasional retreat to get spiritually refreshed. The resurrection is real, glorious, and very spiritual, but also down-to-earth, both in its current manifestation as the Kingdom of Elohim (God) and in its future manifestation in the glorious worlds to come when the whole universe is transformed.

So until tomorrow, when I shall be giving my penultimate talk, may Yahweh bless you richly as you think on the resurrection and all that it means to you. Amen.

Comments from Readers

[1] "You always seem to bring out that little bit more for me to take on board. I have one question in reply to what you said about dying twice I have always been under the impression that Lazarus who was raised from the dead would eventually die again. There have been countless others who have been clinically and medically dead who have been brought back to life again through whatever means who I assume went on to die again" (CS, UK, 11 April 2020).

Author's response: Yes, Lazarus most certainly died twice but was resuscitated (thaumaturised), not resurrected. It was supposed by the people present that he was in a state of decomposition and stinking, which, given the climate, was what would have been expected and would have been the common experience. It's possible Yahweh could have intervened in advance of his raising to ensure no decomposition took place or could simply have supernaturally rebuilt what had physically decomposed when Yah'shua (Jesus) arrived on the scene to perform His miracle. Resuscitation or thaumaturgy is very common indeed so thousands of people over the centuries have indeed died twice. However, nobody to my knowledge has died and totally decomposed to be 'resuscitated' centuries later to then die again naturally. No one dies twice in that way. The clear implication from recorded history is that Yahweh does not bring the dead back to life as a mortal a second time if they have been dead more than a handful of days, and more typically only after a few minutes or hours at most. Thus it seemed reasonable for me to suggest, on this and other grounds, that the dead ones in Jerusalem were not resuscitated or thaumaturised but resurrected as immortal beings and then taken away rather than reburied later. (CCMW)