The Cameo King

Before his death in 2018, Stan Lee was known as the king of cameos. He had over 130 acting credits, but it’s in the MCU where his appearances were most appreciated. He showed up 38 times in Marvel movies.^[1] He was a WWII general, a mental patient, a dog-walker, a galactic barber, an oblivious librarian, a FedEx driver, and once mistaken for Larry King, another frequent cameo actor.

His flashes on the screen almost never had any bearing on the plot. They were meant to be a fun easter egg for fans. The truth is he had almost nothing to do with the movies. Even though he was often listed as an executive producer, it was a purely honorary title.^[2] And, there is substantial evidence that Stan may have really created many of the iconic characters he laid claim to.^[3]

On a hill called Calvary, Jesus Christ died on a Roman cross. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He never misrepresented Himself – He never stole any ideas or cheated anyone. He had only done good His entire life. He was God come in human flesh – absolutely perfect in every way.

Human beings, on the other hand, are absolutely imperfect in every way. That’s why Jesus came to earth. Because God loves every man, woman, and child who has ever been conceived. We need to be saved from our guilt, saved from our imperfections, saved from the sins that disqualify us from heaven. And so, Jesus came to die in our place, taking our sin and the debt we owed, and giving us the riches of His righteousness, if we would simply believe on Him and join the family of God.

On the Sunday morning after He died, Jesus came out of the grave. Others had been raised before, but Jesus was the first to rise and never die again. After Jesus rose, He made a bunch of cameos. In one, He seemed to be a gardener. In another, a traveler. In another, a cook. But these weren’t just throw away scenes. Each one of them mattered very much to the people He encountered. Each one of them was full of purpose. Each one of them advanced the plot of God’s story – His drama of redemption.

Why did Jesus make these appearances? Was He taking a victory tour? Politicians sometimes do that after winning an election. Was it guerrilla marketing? Brands or movies sometimes do this when they want to get attention. Did Jesus need to generate buzz to gain market share?

When you read through these encounters, some of His visits don’t seem to make a lot of sense. You wonder why in the world the risen Christ would “waste” His time with such small potatoes. His cameos come in totally unexpected places, one time to a large group of 500 people,^[4]

but otherwise almost always to very small groups – out of the limelight – no fanfare or pomp.

But these meetings were very important to Jesus. They were essential. They are very personal, very tender, very sympathetic, and loving. The Lord of glory – the One true God, Who conquered death and the grave, Who holds the universe in His hand – took the time (a bunch of times) to show His disciples that He loved them and had a message for them and intentions for them. A new life for them.

In each encounter the Lord helps His disciples, either by giving them encouragement, or direction, or commission, or correction. Let me read to you the opening to some of these cameos.

Matthew 28:1, 9-10 – After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb…⁹ Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.

Matthew 28:16-20 – ¹⁶ The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. ¹⁸ Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Luke 24:13-15 – ¹³ Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles^, from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. ¹⁵ And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them.

John 20:19 – ¹⁹ When it was evening on that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

John 20:26 – ²⁶ A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

John 21:1, 4-5 – After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias…⁴ When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. ⁵ “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?”

“Jesus revealed Himself.” “Jesus came near.” “Jesus came [and] stood among them.” “Jesus met them.” “Jesus Himself came near and began to walk along with them.” “Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them.”

He came. He found these beloved friends of His, whether they were on a dusty trail miles outside of Jerusalem, or out on a boat at sea or hiding in a locked room. Jesus came. Jesus drew near to reveal Himself and speak to them and make things right. He came to show them the truth and invite them to join Him in His mission to save more and more people out of death and the grave.

Since 1987, when Super Bowl champions are interviewed after the game, one of them always says: “I’m going to Disneyland!” After Jesus conquered death, He said, “I’m going to find My friends.”

Jesus Christ is a personal Savior. I’m sure we’ve all heard that phrase – Jesus Christ the personal Savior. In 1990, Depeche Mode released their song Personal Jesus. I’ve never heard their version, but I love Johnny Cash’s cover.

Your own personal Jesus

Someone to hear your prayers

Someone Who cares

He does much more than hear our prayers – He answers them. And He not only cares, He protects and provides for us. He makes plans for us. He walks with us. He includes us in His work.

In the days following the resurrection, Jesus showed again and again how much He cares – how He really is a personal Savior who is looking for people who need saving. Mary needed comfort. Jesus found her and consoled her. Peter needed restoration. Jesus found him and reconciled him. Thomas needed an attitude adjustment. Jesus gave it firmly but lovingly. Cleopas and his companion needed hope and clarity. Jesus walked with them and unfolded hope to them, mile after mile, helping them understand the truth. At least three times, He sat and had a meal with His friends, spending time with care and purpose and kindness and love. That’s our Savior!

These cameos weren’t only to make them feel better. It was also to commission them. He said, “You’re My people. Because I’m alive you can have hope and purpose and assurance. And this salvation thing I’ve been talking about is not just for when you die – it’s for right now.”

Jesus told them to go make disciples. He asked them to be eye-witnesses. He told Peter to feed and shepherd the Lord’s lambs. He told them to live by faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit.^[5]

Before Easter Sunday, their lives had been shattered. They were hopeless and afraid, confused and despairing, not knowing what to do next or how to do. Then Jesus comes, and takes the time to put their lives back together. He gives them a new trajectory that would go beyond their lives, it would continue in an unbroken chain for thousands of years.

You see, it wasn’t just the 11 disciples and a few others that Jesus wanted to reach after Easter. He kept finding people and revealing Himself and drawing them in. Paul, writing in 1 Corinthians, lists different people and groups that Jesus appeared to after the resurrection and he says this:

1 Corinthians 15:5-8 –  ⁵…he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me.

The cross was more than just settling a bill. It was more than a battle against the devil. It wasn’t just a hoop Jesus had to jump through. He loves you personally. It was your sin on His shoulders, but it was His love for you that held Him there. He loves you the way He loved Peter or Paul. His desire is to specifically save you and then fill your life with His goodness and His joy and His heart and His mind and then use your life for His everlasting purposes.

The family of God doesn’t have a limited membership. There are just 780 players in the MLB. Just 450 in the NBA. Did you know there’s an ultra-exclusive dining club at Disneyland? It’s called Club 33. It’s limited to 500 members and right now there are 800 people on the wait list. It can take a decade before your chance to join comes up and when it does, you’ll need to pay a $25,000 initiation fee, followed by $12,000 every year.^[6]

What’s the cost for joining team Jesus? The price has already been paid. Here’s how you join:

John 3:16 – ¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Jesus is a Savior Who loves to save, Who still saves, and Who still appears to the lost of this world, the hopeless of this world, the fearful and the searching. The King of kings spends His time saving.

Did you know there are many reports of Christ appearing to individuals in the Muslim world today? Here is an account from an interview with a missionary called Yazim who works in the middle east:

“Yazim began by stating, ‘God is moving inside the Middle East with dreams, visions, and personal visitations.’ He shared the story of a man who lived outside of an unnamed Middle Eastern city known for vast opium use. “This man said ‘A man wearing all white knocked at my door every night and I couldn’t look at him because his face was so shiny and bright,’” Yazim recalled. “‘When he would come inside, he asked me to write down what he said.  The next night, he would come again and this went on for a whole month.’” Yazim asked the man, “What did you write?”  The man showed Yazim his notebook. In it was written: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” “He had the whole book of John verbatim in his notebook,” Yazim revealed. “Jesus visited him every night until he finished the book. The amazing thing is, the man actually asked us, ‘who was this man that visited me?’”

We might wonder why the Lord didn’t identify Himself to this man. The reason is because He now shows Himself through His followers – through you and I who are Christians here this morning. In His resurrection cameos, Jesus more than once said, “I’m sending you as a witness. I’m sending you to spread the Good News. I’m going to use your life to save others.” You are the cameo now because you have been made a part of the Body of Christ and the Holy Spirit lives in you. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that God makes His appeal through us.

We don’t see Jesus, visibly today, the way Peter and Paul and Cleopas did. But we can see Jesus on the pages of Scripture. He is revealed in the volume of the book. We see the testimony of the risen Christ in the lives of Christians who are walking with Him and carrying His message.

The message of Easter is clear: Jesus is the Messiah and He loves you and wants to reach you so that He can share the resurrection with you. Of all the things He could be doing, He chooses to come near to you. In John 21, while some of the disciples are out fishing, there’s Jesus just hanging out on the shore, prepping a fish breakfast, tending the fire, waiting for them. Because that was the most important place He could possibly be at the moment.

If you’re not a Christian here this morning, please understand that God loves you and wants to save you. I know that’s true because the Bible proclaims it and shows it in great detail. If you reject His offer of salvation, then you are choosing to keep the debt of your sin. And the cost for that sin is death. Physical death and eternal death. But you can escape your debt today by receiving the free gift of salvation.

If you are a Christian, be reminded that Jesus is still your personal Savior. He still has intentions and callings and opportunities for you. He wants to commune with you and show Himself through you.

A few film directors are famous for appearing in their own movies – Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan most famously. The other actors in those movies may have roles to play, but they’re not the director. Our heavenly Director has invited us to join His cast – to play a part in His masterpiece. He’s given us a script, He gives us direction, He’s called out “Action!” And we continue His story.

Stan Lee made two cameo appearances after his death: Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. But, Marvel has officially made a policy: No more Stan Lee cameos.^[7] After His death, Jesus made many cameos. He continues to reveal Himself thousands of years later, because Jesus is not dead. He is alive. And He is coming back one day in a worldwide appearance. All the plot of human history is leading to that moment when the King returns and sets up His Kingdom. Meanwhile, He comes near to each individual on earth, desiring to save, to sanctify, to assist, to set apart, to transform our lives with His love and grace. To share with us everything that belongs to Him.

Take A Seek Peek Into The Future

Newsweek headline from November 2022: Shocking Number of Americans Believe We Are Living in the End Times.

• 39% of US citizens believe we are living in the End Times. 
• 47% of Christians believe we are living in the End Times. 

What is truly shocking is that only 47% of Christians believe we are living in the End Times.

For one, the End Times, also called the Last Days, began with the first coming of Jesus. The Book of Hebrews in the Bible begins, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (1:1-2). 

The shock is because the majority of Christians are not prepared to give an answer about the coming of Jesus at a time when over ⅓ of Americans are frightened by, and seek answers to, what’s happening in the world today, and what is going to happen tomorrow.  

The first hurdles to clear in getting a handle on the future are vocabulary and terminology. 

What if I told you that we are pre-tribulation rapture premillennial futurist dispensationalists?

We need to introduce a few key terms:

• The “Church” is a good place to start. The apostle Paul explained that the Church, and the Church Age, was a mystery. In the Bible, a mystery is a truth that was not previously known but has now been made known. The Church is the unique group of believers starting with the Day of Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection until the Rapture. There is no Church in the Old Testament – only Israel and Gentile nations. One of the characteristics that sets us apart from other entities and groups in the Bible is that we currently have the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. 

• You’ve undoubtedly heard of the Rapture of the Church. More accurately, it is the Resurrection & Rapture of the Church. It is the return of Jesus to catch-away all Church Age believers. Those deceased will be resurrected from the dead into glorified physical bodies. Those alive will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, immediately receiving glorified physical bodies. 

• A significant feature of the Last Days is a seven year period of time that Jesus described by saying, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). Because of Jesus’ description, it is commonly called the Great Tribulation. It has several names and descriptions. We like  to call it by the name the prophet Jeremiah used. It is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. ‘Jacob’ is a way of referring to the physical descendants of Abraham, the nation of Israel. Although the tribulation of those seven years affects everyone on the planet, it is especially designed to bring the nation of Israel to saving faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that by the end of it, “all Israel will be saved.”

• Armageddon is a word that gets greatly misused. The word only appears one time in the Bible. It describes the Valley of Megiddo, where all the armies of the Earth will be gathered to battle in the closing days of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. 

• The Second Coming of Jesus is just that. There are many more references to Jesus’ coming a second time than there are to His coming the first time. 

• Millennium is a Latin word meaning thousand years. The Millennium, or the Millennial Kingdom, is the Kingdom of God on Earth that will last for one thousand years after the Second Coming.  

Regarding the Millennium, there are differences of opinion as to its relation to Jesus’ Second Coming:

• Pre-millennial is the belief that Jesus’ Second Coming is before the Millennium. 
• Post-millennial is the belief Jesus will return after believers have established the Millennial Kingdom.
• Amillennialism is the belief that the current Church Age is the Millennial Kingdom with Jesus ruling not on Earth but in Heaven for a figurative, not literal, one thousand years.  

It gets parsed further when we factor in the Resurrection & Rapture of the Church in relation to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble:

• If you believe the Church will be resurrected and raptured before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, you are pre-tribulation. 
• Others believe the resurrection and rapture happen ½ way through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.  That’s mid-tribulation. 
• Others believe the resurrection and rapture happen after the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, at the Second Coming.  That’s post-tribulation. 
• Then there is preterism, the belief that all prophecy in the Bible is already history. The preterist interpretation of Scripture regards the Book of the Revelation as a symbolic picture of first-century conflicts, not a description of what will occur in the Last Days.

We are pre-tribulation rapture premillennial 

futurist dispensationalists

• A futurist understands that unfulfilled prophecies, including those about the coming Tribulation in chapters six through eighteen in the Revelation, will be actually and accurately be fulfilled in the future. 

• The most important feature of what is called dispensationalism is that we keep Israel separate from the Church. They are two different entities, two different groups, in the Bible. 

The ushers are going to pass out the pop quiz now.

• This is important exposure because a majority of believers don’t realize we are in the Last Days when the Bible says we are.
• This is important exposure because a lot of nonbelievers think these are the End Times but their knowledge comes from the movies. 

Let’s get chronological. The Resurrection & Rapture of the Church can occur any moment, and will occur before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. 

• The Time of Jacob’s Trouble does not involve the Church. The angel Gabriel told the prophet Daniel that the seven years were, “For your people and for your holy city,” i.e.,Israel and Jerusalem (9:24). 

• There are numerous passages that definitely teach that the final seven years are a time of God dealing with the nation of Israel.^[1]There is no passage in which the Church is described as participating in the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. 

• Jesus talked to His disciples on the Mount of Olives about the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. At one point He said, “pray that your flight [from persecution] be not on the Sabbath.” That is a very specific indicator of who He’s talking to. The Sabbath is a Jewish ordinance, not binding on the Church. 

• Jesus promised the Church in Philadelphia, in the Book of the Revelation, “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (3:10). They will definitely not be on Earth during the time of trouble that exceeds all trouble. They will be kept “from” it, not be kept safe in or through it. It cannot be a promise for that one Church, especially when you factor in other verses that promise the entire Church will be kept from the future wrath of God that He will pour out on the planet.

• There are those who say the Church must be purified by going through great tribulation. That is not how Jesus said He purifies His bride. He said that we are washed by the Word of God.

One more. Those of us who are pre-tribulations, like to point out that in the Book of the Revelation, the Church is prominent in the first three chapters, but never in chapters six through eighteen, which describe in detail the seven year Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Critics immediately dismiss it, calling it an argument from silence. It isn’t an argument at all. It is an observation of facts. The Revelation of Jesus Christ mentions many unique players, e.g., 144,000 sealed Jews, the four horsemen, two witnesses, twenty-four elders, four living creatures, seven angels with seven trumpets, the inhabitants of Earth, three angels who give testimony, etc. The omission of the Church in the tribulation chapters really is significant. It may not prove anything by itself, but it makes perfect sense with the pretribulation rapture of the Church.

Think with me for a moment about the Resurrection & Rapture of the Church. It will create worldwide chaos and panic as multiplied millions of people disappear. It will provide the perfect opportunity to set up a global, totalitarian government like we read about in the Book of the Revelation. 

Global government, a cashless system of commerce, and every person having some sort of personal identifier in order to participate in the system. 

We could spend all day finding article after article showing we are already trending towards these things:

• Globalism is no longer considered a conspiracy theory. World leaders have come out in favor of a New World Order, a Great Reset as they call it, to “build back better.” Their plan involves nations surrendering their sovereignty and cooperating with all the other nations of the world with a central totalitarian leadership. 

• The COVID pandemic has prepared the citizens of Earth to submit to every whim of government for the common good of humanity. It doesn’t matter what we believe about the pandemic. I’m simply saying that many world leaders have openly stated that it is an opportunity to further their globalism agenda. 

• Climate change mandates are giving governments greater power everyday. We are not commenting, pro or con, about climate change. Whatever your opinion, you must admit it has the potential for radically altering nations. 

• For the first time ever, we have the technology to eliminate cash and establish a truly global economy. This is exactly what Bible predicted would happen more than two thousand years ago.

• Any number of personal biometric identifiers could become the way we conduct our business. Once the entire planet is on that system, it will be easy for the Beast, who we commonly call the antichrist, to demand worship, threatening to cut a person off from all goods and services, and to hunt them down, and kill them.

Fast forward to the end of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. The armies of the world are gathered together at Armageddon, in the Valley of Megiddo. Suddenly the heavens break open, and Jesus Christ appears, riding a magnificent white horse, in all of His glory and power. Earth’s armies turn upon Him, and He destroys them with the breath of His mouth.

The Church arrives with Him. We will aid Him in the rule of the Kingdom of God on Earth, the Millennium. 

We began with a headline. Here is yesterday’s headline: Muslim world must unite against Israel, Erdogan says to Iran’s Raisi. 

Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, is quoted as saying, “Whoever is on Israel’s side, we are against them.”

When Israel became a sovereign nation in her homeland in 1948, it was a miracle, and the fulfillment of prophecy. Israel is fulfilling many other prophecies, included this one in the Book of Zechariah, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.”

The facts don’t tell the whole story. At every step, in every dispensation, the Lord is seeking to save lost sinners.

The nature of God, and His pattern of reaching out to save, are established immediately in the Bible. From the very beginning, God communicates to His creation, that He is not willing that any should perish.

Adam and Eve sinned. They hid. God sought them, to save them. Then the LORD told them that He had a plan, and that it involved Him coming to Earth as what He called the “seed of the woman.” We know this as the virgin birth of Jesus Christ in His First coming. This conversation in the Garden of Eden is called by theologians, the protoevangelicum, the first evangelism.

A little while later in the Bible, we read that God came down to Earth when human beings were rebelling against Him by building a tower to the gods. The LORD scattered them all over the Earth. We read in the Book of Acts, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the Earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (17:26-27). 

Following this scattering, the LORD determined to create a new nation, the nation of Israel, through Abraham. One of the purposes of Israel was to be a light to the Gentile nations, showing them the beauty and holiness of Jehovah.

The Church Age is a time for Christians to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that [Jesus] commanded…” (Matthew 28:19-20). 

For all its horror, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble features the greatest evangelistic effort of any age of man.

• We are introduced to a unique group of Jews, 144,000 strong – twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. They are sealed by God in such a way that they cannot be harmed. Immediately after we meet them in the Book of the Revelation, there is a scene in Heaven of multitudes who have been saved. 

• We are introduced to two men whom we call the Two Witnesses. They go about sharing the Gospel. They are not only indestructible for a time, but are able to defend themselves by calling fire down from Heaven. They are eventually martyred, but three and one-half days later, the entire world is watching live as they rise from the dead and ascend into Heaven.
• If that is not enough, we are introduced to an “angel flying in the midst of Heaven, with the everlasting Gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth – to every nation and tribe and language and people” (Revelation 14:6).

• The prophet Isaiah declares that, in the future Millennium, “the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea” (11:9). 

From beginning to end, God is seeking and saving.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. No one can come to Jesus unless God draws them. Jesus said that by being lifted up on the Cross to die as our substitute He would draw all men to Himself. He is thus the Savior of all men – especially those who believe. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. By grace you have are saved through faith; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

If you are here today, and are not a believer in Jesus, it is absolutely, 100%, because Jesus is seeking you, to save you. 

All Rise

When baseball-great Ted Williams died at age 83, things got weird. Despite his wishes to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Florida Keys, son John and youngest daughter Claudia opted to have his body sent to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he was frozen at the Alcor Cryonics facility. 

Cryonics is the process of storing the deceased in stainless steel containers at frigid temperatures hoping that someday scientists will have the ability to bring them back to life.

Ted Williams next made headlines (wait for it) when it was reported that his head had been decapitated by surgeons and stored separately from his body at the Alcor facility. 

A severed head would be no problem for Italian neurosurgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero. He has been dubbed, “The brain behind the first head transplant.”
Canavero intends to take a living patient whose body is physically disabled and transplant their head on a fully-functioning body.

Well-known secular futurist Ray Kurzwell predicts a different path to human immortality. He contends that humans will have machine bodies by the year 2100.

If you want to stay young until 2100, take a trip to San Francisco and set your GPS for Ambrosia Plasma. They perform transfusions of the blood of healthy teenagers to people 35 or older.

A column writer who follows anti-aging research said, “People who view death as oblivion are still trying hard to defeat it.”

All approaches to living forever have this in common: They view death as an enemy that somebody must defeat.

They have one other thing in common:

They ignore the fact that death has already been decisively defeated

Jesus’ resurrection was an outright defeat of death:

✏ The apostle Peter explained: “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him” (Acts 2:24).
✏ The triumphant, risen Christ said, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).

Not cryogenics, but Christ, has defeated death

Over the last three-plus decades, I have had the privilege to officiate many memorials and graveside services. I’ve seen the faces of death. I don’t mean the deceased.

I’ve seen the faces of death on the living

✏ As I look out upon the crowd, some face death with faith. They may be weeping and grieving, eyes wet and red from tears, but they are believers in Christ who know that He conquered death. They have no doubt that if their loved one was a believer they are safe in Heaven.

✏ As I look out upon the crowd, some face death with fear. They know that death is coming hard for them. They have no basis for hope.

People might claim that they don’t fear death. They do. COVID19 is exposing the fear of death in more ways than just fear of the virus:

✏ I read an article this week titled, Scared to Death. It reported that chronically ill persons are avoiding getting the medical care they desperately need because they fear acquiring a lethal COVID infection on top of their illness. Putting off treatment on account of fear is killing them.

✏ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky went off-script at a briefing and made an emotional plea to Americans not to let up on public health measures amid fears of a fourth wave of COVID19. “I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” Walensky said, appearing to hold back tears.

✏ President Joe Biden said, “We’re in a life-and-death race.”
Professionals are starting to call it, Coronaphobia. I read this in a medical journal:

Based on a review of… studies, we define coronaphobia as an excessive triggered response of fear of contracting the virus causing COVID19, leading to accompanied excessive concern over physiological symptoms, significant stress about personal and occupational loss, increased reassurance and safety seeking behaviors, and avoidance of public places and situations, causing marked impairment in daily life functioning.

(On a positive note, you can stop worrying about the asteroid Apophis. NASA announced that it would not cause the end of the world for at least the next 100 years).
I want you to picture yourself
at your graveside service

✏ There’s the casket, with your remains.
✏ If you opt for cremation, there’s the urn, with your cremains.

Do you know where you will be when your body has been reduced to remains or cremains?

Christians have confidence that at the moment of their death, they will be “absent from the body and… present with the Lord” (Second Corinthians 5:8).

If you are not in Christ, your soul has a different destination at death. You will be confined to Hades. The Bible describes it as a holding place where nonbelievers suffer while awaiting their final judgment.

I should add that there are no second chances after death. No purgatory or any other opportunities to earn salvation. The Bible is clear: “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

✏ The deceased believer waits in Heaven for resurrection.
✏ The deceased nonbeliever waits in Hades for resurrection.

I enjoyed making timelines in Junior High History class.
A simple biblical timeline for the future of the world would include the following significant events, in this sequence:

Since we are living in the Church Age now, it is our starting point.
The Resurrection of the Church Age believers.
The seven-year Great Tribulation.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
The one-thousand year Kingdom of God on the earth.
The Great White Throne judgment of God.
Eternity.

Believers who have died from all eras of human history are not raised from the dead all at once. They – we – will experience resurrection at specific points along the future timeline. The apostle Paul said, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep… But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming” (First Corinthians 15:20,23).

We can add the “order” of the resurrection to our timeline:

✏ We always start with Jesus. He was the “firstfruits,” the first to rise from the dead never to die again. His resurrection guarantees believers that they, too, will be raised to eternal life.

✏ Next, everyone saved between Jesus’ resurrection and His coming to remove His church from earth and take us to Heaven will be resurrected.

✏ Next, believers who survive the Great Tribulation and the Old Testament believers will be resurrected at the Second Coming of Jesus.

✏ Next, the believers who enter the one-thousand-year kingdom, called the Millennial Kingdom, and those born to them who get saved will be resurrected.

We can ‘circle back’ and add more detail about resurrection at each point on God’s timeline.

We live in the Church Age. It is a unique, distinct time in history between the first and second comings of Jesus. In this age deceased believers are described as having “fallen asleep.” Their bodies are what “sleep,” awaiting resurrection. Their spirit goes immediately to be with the Lord.

Looking ahead to his death, the apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain… I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better” (Philippians 1:21, 23). “To be absent from the body” at death “is to depart” and “be with Christ.”

Jesus promised to come back to resurrect deceased believers of the Church Age. The apostle Paul said, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (First Thessalonians 4:16).

(The “dead in Christ” are all the believers of the church age who have died. It is another way of saying “those who have fallen asleep”).

When Jesus comes for His church as promised, deceased believer’s remains or cremains will be instantaneously transformed into an immortal resurrection body and united with their spirit. “The dead,” we read in the Bible, “will be raised imperishable.”

When Jesus returns for His church there will be millions of living believers. What happens to us?

✏ “We will not all die, but we will all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…” (First Corinthians 15:51)

✏ “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (First Thessalonians 4:17).

We call this the Rapture of the Church & it is imminent – it could happen any moment during the Church Age

At some point, but after Jesus resurrects & raptures His church, the seven-year Great Tribulation will break like a storm upon the earth. It is a time of unprecedented global judgment. It’s horrible, for sure. Nevertheless, God will still be offering salvation to any and all who will believe on Jesus. Those who believe will, for the most part, suffer martyrdom.

At the end of the seven-years, Jesus will return to earth. We call it the Second Coming. Martyrs from the Great Tribulation will be resurrected.

We read, “I saw souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).

Old Testament believers are likewise resurrected at the Second Coming: “At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of tribulation, 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 everlasting life…” (Daniel 12:1-2).

This, then, is the series for the resurrection of believers in Christ:

Jesus rose from the dead.
He is coming for His church at which time He raises deceased believers and transforms the bodies of living believers.
At His Second Coming the martyrs from the Great Tribulation and Old Testament believers and are raised.
Lastly, there will be some believers who appear before the Great White Throne. They were born during the Millennium and became believers in Jesus. They will receive their resurrection bodies.

Every believer, from the time of Adam, will have been resurrected.

What about nonbelievers? You, too, will be resurrected. However, it will not be in series. It will be all at once.

Rev 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the Heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.
Rev 20:13  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works.
Rev 20:14  Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

You will either participate in the “first resurrection” or you will suffer “the second death.”

The “second death” is a spiritual “death” that follows physical death. It is resurrection to eternal, conscious punishment in the Lake of Fire.

Let’s list your choices. You can only check one box:

☐ Cryogenics
(In the movies, the power always fails, or the chamber cracks, and you thaw).

☐ Re-attached head
(Can you say, “Frankenstein?”).

☐ Machine body
(Remember the Borg, the Rise of the Machines & Bladerunner).

Teen Age blood transfusions
(You’ll want to listen to Taylor Swift & start watching the CW).

☐ Resurrection to suffer the Second Death in Hell

Or, ⌧Resurrection in Jesus Christ to enjoy Eternity.

While you contemplate the only answer, let’s take at look at the face of Jesus at the tomb of His friend, Lazarus. We’ll call it a tomb-side service seeing as they were still in mourning.

The sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, sent a message to Jesus explaining that their brother was deathly ill.

When Jesus heard it, He said that the illness would not end in death but in glory for God and His Son. He stayed where He was for another two days before telling His disciples that He would go back to Judea.

Jesus arrived in Bethany to find that Lazarus had already been dead four days. Martha said that if He had been there earlier, her brother would not have died. Jesus responded that her brother would rise again. Hearing this, Martha said that she knew he would rise again in the resurrection. Jesus told her that He was the resurrection and through Him those who believed would yet live.

Martha went to Mary and told her that Jesus had come. Hearing this, Mary immediately went to meet Him. Mary met Jesus, and told Him that Lazarus would not have died if He had been there.

When Jesus came to the grave of Lazarus, He wept. He then ordered that somebody should move the stone in front of the tomb. Jesus prayed, thanking God the Father for the opportunity to give glory to His name. After He had finished praying, Jesus called for Lazarus to come forth.

Lazarus emerged from the tomb, alive and well.

The raising of Lazarus from the dead is the backstory for one of Jesus’ famous “I AM” statements:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26 CSB)

Jesus Christ declared His own “resurrection” and “life” and made two promises to anyone who would “believe in” Him:

✏ If you die, you will live.
✏ If you live, you will never die.

Believer, If you die before the Lord returns for His church, you will live. “To be absent from the body” at death “is to depart” and “be with Christ” as you wait to be physically resurrected.

Believer, If you live, i.e., if you are alive when He comes for His church, you will never die. You will “be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye… Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus asked all of us, “Do you believe?”

Listen intently to these further words of Jesus:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47).

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:29).

We expand upon what Jesus said by asking, “Do you believe Jesus Christ is who the Bible says He is, and are you trusting Him as your Savior?”

Do you believe that Jesus is God in human flesh?
Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, for which you deserve the Second Death?
Do you believe that the sacrifice of Jesus is the only adequate payment for your sins?

Billy Graham said, “The word “believe” in the Bible means more than simply agreeing in our minds that something might be true. It means “trust” – that we believe so strongly in God that we are willing to commit our lives to Him and live the way we know He wants us to live.”

Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.” [If you] believe in [Him], though [you] may die, [you] shall live. And whoever lives and believes in [Jesus] shall never die.”

“Do you believe this?”