Shalom chaverim and welcome to this last talk in my series, Resurrection Narratives in which I splash around in various inlets and coves of Resurrection Bay, stir up the waters, to see what can be driven into our theologcial nets.

I am always struck by how little is spoken of the resurrection in the four Gospels, and even less in the Tanakh (Old Testament) where the little we do know about comes largely from Daniel, as we've seen already. The Four Gospels are overwhelmingly about the Kingdom, something you hardly ever hear spoken of in the churches today. When this series is over we need to go back to that important theme because it is the foundation upon which the resurrection is built. No Kingdom, no resurrection. No Kingdom, no Messianic Community, no Church.

And that is because the resurrection isn't just for individual people, it's also for marriages, for families, for clans, for tribes, for nations (especially Messianic Israel), for the whole earth and for the whole cosmos, all of which are embraced by the Great Resurrection Event. Again, may I remind you, the resurrection is not just about you and me as individuals - it's about something much, much bigger. It's about the cosmic reign of our Elohim (God). And one of my tasks is to get you to think bigger - to become Kingdom-minded. That is why Yah'shua (Jesus) first of all announced the Kingdom and not the Resurrection so that when the resurrection came, it took everyone by surprise, from the believers all the way down to the demonic realm.

It baffles me a little that so few people bothered even to think much about the afterlife until about a century or two before Yah'shua (Jesus) was born. Was there a time, perhaps, long, long ago when they knew more, and forgot? We don't know. In times of apostacy truth soon gets driven out of human life by the currents of paganism, people get distracted by lies and either turn to false religion or get totally absorbed in the material world. Usually it's a mixture of both. And we know there was a terrible apostacy that necessitated the Great Flood and the near total mass extinction of the human race, barring Noah's family of eight. I wish we knew more about those ancient times but alas, aside from a few vague folk memories and incredible monuments betraying an incredible technology and knowledge of sound science long lost to humanity, what records that may once had existed got washed away by the Deluge. So in times of apostacy there is increasing forgetfulness, and with forgetfulness comes a loss of conscious-awareness of the things that matter the most. Then civilisation starts degrading into worse than animalism.

It's almost as though the world had been in a deep sleep for millennia until about 2,000 years ago. Up until around 200 BC, the ancients thought only vaguely of an underworld, an unlit, shadowy place from which, they supposed, none of the dead ever returned. That's why you won't find too much information about the 'other side' in the Tanakh (Old Testament). They just didn't know and didn't seem to be that interested, perhaps because when you're struggling to survive you don't have the leisure time we do to think on these things. The occasional Greek philosopher did, and one or two others. Paul's cry for something to be done about awakening people to a lively sense of the bigger reality can be sensed somewhat from the pages of his letter to the Ephesians:

"Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Messiah will shine on you" (Eph.5:14, NRSV).

My friends, the resurrection reality is an amazing thing! As I was meditating last night on what Yahweh wanted me to share with you today, I kept getting spiritual flashbacks to our resurrected Lord and Master's time between resurrection and ascension. There was something I could sense but not quite put words to, something I have been feeling quite intensely on occasion during this last week. The physical world, important and everlastingly a part of reality though it is and always shall be, is currently out of sync - out of balance, in the 'wrong' place, if that makes any sense. It's why it contains so many frustrating paradoxes.

For those of you who may perhaps remember the physical chemistry you learned at the senior level of high school, you will know that the electrons around atoms, which are mysteriously both particles and energy waves, occupy various quantum levels of energy. When excited, these electrons jump from their ground state to the next orbital up but never remain there very long, eventually decaying back from whence they came.

The best analogy of the physical resurrection that I can think of is of a complete rearragement of those orbitals and shells so that matter, whilst remaining similar, also changes in its properties. There may well be even more fundamental changes at a sub-atomic level too, thus allowing (for instance) the passage of resurrected persons like Yah'shua (Jesus) through solid walls. My point is that every atom of matter has been potentially affected by the resurrection, which was not merely a local event on a tiny speck of a planet called earth but in every star and galaxy in this vast universe. And though the chief object of the work of the cross was this little world and a species called man, it's scope was gigantic. Truely it has been said that this is a 'privileged planet' (a term coined by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W.Richards in their book of the same name), ironic given all the political nonsense and lies about 'social privilege' that we are constantly bombarded with in the media these days. Like it or not, Yahweh especially created, and therefore privileged, human beings for great things on condition that they live the way they were originally designed for.

I mentioned yesterday that sometimes we get outraged by the things Yah'shua (Jesus) said. That is usually because we are either ignorant of the bigger picture or have simply bought into, and feed lustily from, the devil's lies because some dark side of our fallen nature is satiated...temporarily, until it craves more and more and ends up destroying itself. Remember, He taught that the 'dead' should be left to bury the 'dead'. The living are who matter and the life we are supposed to be embracing. Of course we have to mourn and comfort the bereaved and be comforted ourselves (indeed, it's virtually a new commandment in the Beattitudes - Mt.5:4), so Yah'shua's (Jesus') remark was largely situational. He was only going to be with them for a brief period of time and there was much to take in given that they were so slow in learning.

Priorities shift and change in different situations. Yah'shua (Jesus) also used provocative language about eating and drinking Him which wasn't, as we saw, new language by any means, but when He made it intensely personal - 'eat my flesh and drink my blood' in connection with His declaration that He was the Lechem Chayim or Bread of Life (Jn.6:53-58) - it was too much for the superficial and uncommitted who perferred their religion on the outside for human praises, rather that within for intimate communion. Yah'shua (Jesus) separates out those who want showy, pretend religion from those who actually want to die to self in order to obtain permanent, spiritual transformation and an eternal inheritance in the worlds to come. He doesn't play games so He shocks and challenges those who do to get them to either repent or move on, like the rich young ruler (Mt.19:16-22). He wants devoted sheep who are for real, not narcissistic goats in search of carnal, psychic stimulation and entertainment. He wants those who live for glory of eternity and not the superficiality of the moment.

Resurrection is intimate because it affects every particle in this universe, from the coarse (yet essential) physical material (which occultists and gnostics despise) to the incredibly fine spiritual substance that directs all the rest. All was originally pronounced "good" by Yahweh in Genesis 1, was it not? He used 'I AM' statements to make sure His talmidim (disciples) understood that what was most important was fine - refined - but also intensely personal, all leading back to Him. If He is chayim - life - then everything living traces back to Him, the One they obtain existence and sustenance from. He made sure they understood that He lay at the centre of all the chayim or life they spoke so fondly off yet understood so poorly, thinking it was somehow 'theirs' to do with as they pleased.

Today's satanically-driven world urges men and women to throw off reason, morality, kindness and all that Yah'shua (Jesus) stands for, and relentlessly pursue self at the expense of anyone perceived to be in the way even if it means destroying them. The world has infiltrated the churches - in some cases, totally - whose members can only, pitifully, indulge in selfish virtue signalling. By this means they suppose they can acquire self-worth when such is only possible through Christ who demands death of the self. We have Christ-worth, not self-worth because self is dead. None of this liberal garbage feeds the soul. How can it? Self is dead and cannot produce life and security. None of this remotely points toward the Kingdom or the Resurrection even though fake liberals will borrow the language of the Gospel, redefine it, and insist it does. The present Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury is expert at promulgating this spiritual poverty.

Even our language has been hijacked and degraded. That too must be reclaimed, talked about, and used effectively, because words that have meaning are vehicles of spirit, and those which don't are vehicles of chaos. That's why we are commanded to confess our salvation to believers and unbelievers alike (Rom.10:9), because it sets up a resonance in the physical world of which we are now a part and always will be a part. How else, apart from a life lived (which requires that people be around us to see us in action - our motions and behaviours), can we relay this marvelous salvation and the resurrection energy/power Yah'shua (Jesus) has released to us, except through the confession of our mouths - with words? (Obviously if you are mute then you can confess in other ways like sign language or writing).

Most people aren't psychics - they can't read our minds - and can't understand why we're 'nice' and can end up assuming that what's changed us and made us attractive is something self-generated - something from within ourselves - rather than from Elohim (God). So we have to tell them before they start praising us instead of Yahweh and and so not encourage them to be idolatrous through our silence. Elohim (God) is thus glorified by our words, and, as I have been saying so often, by being heard. By pointing away from ourselves and the flesh's greed for self-glory and instead to the true Author of all that's good in us, we give glory where it is due. That is why both Scripture and our testimonies must be spoken and heard, or at the very least written and signed. Remember, the Scriptures were designed to be read out aloud. So must our witness be. That's why I write and make videos whenever I can.

This really ought to be common sense to us yet we all know the lies and smokescreens the fleshy nature throws up in its quest to be worshipped as god. You may love someone deeply but because in this life we see only partially with our minds and hearts and spirits, we need also to be told that we are loved. Words then become an essential bridge between the twilight of the Old Creation World - this fallen world - and the new resurrected world created within us through emunah (faith) in Christ and nourished by surrender and receptivity to the constant replenishing of the Ruach (Spirit).

By means of words charged with love, we convey love and awaken love in others, by kindling or stoking the Light of Christ that everyone is born with who enters this dimension through their fathers and mothers. Consider this title of Messiah:

"In the beginning was the Word (Davar, Logos), and the Word was with Elohim (God), and the Word was Elohim (God). He was with Elohim (God) in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was chayim (life), and that chayim (life) was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood (or extinguished) it.

"There came a man who was sent from Elohim (God); his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through Him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man (was) coming into the world.

"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognizse Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of Elohim (God) - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of Elohim (God).

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-14, NIV).

There is, and was, and always will be, a connection between the Saviour and every particle in the Cosmos - physical, spiritual, and everything between. His connection is not symbolic or metaphorical, but literal. He is in the very fabric of what He created, much as the soul or spirit of an artist is in his painting, or an architect in his design of a building. The painting or the building tell you about the original artist or architect. The paint may be faded and flaking off, the masonry may be war-ravaged, discoloured and falling down, just as the stars and galaxies are colliding, meteors are raining down on moons and planets, and comets are being ripped or vapourised by the sun, but there is still enough of the original art and architecture left to make them knowable. We can see the Creator still in creation, even if it is all distorted and mangled because of sin and entropic decay.

Resurrection not only restores the painting, the building and the whole world and cosmos back to its perfect form but it also restores it to its original, pre-Fallen, pre-sin, glory, where everything is properly connected and everything is properly elevated into its spiritual centre. Resurrection restores and then creates something even better.

How so? Because we as a race have grown and matured. We can never return to the innocence of a 'not knowing' Adam and Eve before they sinned, but we can return to the purity they knew and to the free flowing communication between them and Yahweh with whom they used to walk and converse in the Garden. We can also - and shall - return to a Garden Paradise, and we can and must start by having that Garden restored within us, so that even though the outer world is decaying and disintegrating - including our physical bodies - inside there is life (chayim), peace (shalom), joy (simcha), and an eternally playing symphony of beauty that comes from echad union with Christ and which is supposed to arouse the curisoty and stimulate the spiritual hunger of those who are lost but want 'out' of the world's way of 'living' - out of their 'living death'. We are supposed to be the advertisement of the Resurrection Kingdom to them. Are we doing our jobs well?

When husbands and wives thus delivered and infused with resurrection life unite in mind, heart and body, they can multiply this resurrection energy in a unique way that single person cannot. They can also bring children into the world giving them a head spiritual start, both from implanting them with light (what's called a 'generational blessing') as well as providing them with a home environment of light, equipping them to meet the world - it's ugliness and cruely - with strength and inner contentment. The family is central. Yahweh loves the family because He is Family. And when families have this love, then they can expand and embrace even more souls, whether as natural biological families or as congregational families - the messianic community or church - which is supposed to do the same as the biological family on another level. Resurrection power binds all of this together, and infuses it with New Creation life, light, love, power, and spirit. If you did not grow up in such an environment, it is your privilege and blessing to learn how to create one of your own now.

As beings containing resurrection life through trusting Messiah and maintaining it through Torah-obedience, we must live in a very unsatisfactory, flawed world in so many ways. We yearn for the Millennium, when mortals and immortals can live together, and we yearn even more for the æon or age beyond that when everyone is resurrected along with the earth (which will become a blazing ball of glory like the sun), our solar system, our galaxy and our entire universe. That is the hope, and the yearning.

But it must begin with us as individuals in Christ, in ourr marriages, our families, our congregations, our clans, tribes, nations and the world as a whole, one level at a time - here a little, there a little - as we make the small daily adjustments to our lives - patiently, resolutely, within a famework of covenant-love - that inch us day by day ever closer to, and deeper in, the majestic reality of our Creator, the One who died for us on Calvary that we might inherit everything He has.

The little things matter an awful lot, you see, so get started! That ought to be a fantastic inducement - not a fantasy, because it is true, and you can prove it - here and now - by taking one more decision for truth and righteousness. Make the choice this moment, speak it out aloud: I choose this way, this truth, this life (Jn.14:6). Amen.

I hope this series of short talks on the resurrection has been a blessing to you. This physical world has a way of sending us to sleep spiritually and we constantly need awakening. "Take no part," Paul says, "in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them" (Eph.5:11, NRSV). "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the qadosh (holy, set-apart) city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean" (Isa.52:1, KJV). "Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of Elohim (God)" (1 Cor 15:34, KJV).

Comments from Readers

[1] "Amen" (FP, USA, 13 April 2020)
[2] "Very insightful and well spoken. Thank you!" (DH, USA, 13 April 2020)
[3] "Great sermon. You are the only one who can teach me and confirm what I believe and help me build on that. Thank you" (CS, UK, 13 April 2020)
[4] "Thank you, very interesting" (KM, UK, 13 April 2020)