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JOB 14:14

"IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH?"

Intro: What are some of the questions that have been occupying your mind
       lately. Shall I change jobs?  Did I buy enough and the right back
       to school clothes?   Who shall we invite over this week?  What if
       you were to sick to work! and your  children were all killed in a
       car accident; and you had no friends to invite for you  had no
       home?

I. QUESTION IS BORN FROM DESPAIR.
        A. Job had been striped of his family, possessions, health.
                1. Life too painful.
                        a. Man that is born of a woman is of few days
                           and full of trouble. He blossoms as a flower
                           and is then cut down.
                2. No hope for man.
                        a. If the tree is cut down it may come up again
                           sprouting out of the trunk.
                        b. When man is cut down, that all.
        B. If this life is all there is?
                1. Life is a mistake, it would be better if it wasn't.
                2. Life is not fair.
                        a. Good people often suffer.
                        b. Bad people often prosper.
        C. "If a man die... if I knew there was a continuation of life
           in another dimension or sphere then I would just wait for my
           change to come."
        D. No answer for Job's question.
                1. Years later age of philosophy born.
                2. Still no answer till.


II. JESUS SAID TO MARTHA "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE."
        A. A most radical statement.
                1. "If a man lives and believes in Me he will go on
                   living."
                2. Job asked, "if a man dies does he go on living?"
                3. Jesus answers, yes!  Provided he believes in Me.
                4. Jesus challenged Martha, "do you believe this?"
                        a. Immediately the line is drawn that divides men,
                           those who believe-don't.
                                1. Those who have eternal life-not.
                                2. Those who have hope-no.
        B. What did Jesus mean?
                1. The Bible teaches that the real me is spirit.
                        a. The body is not the real me, a tent in which
                           I live for a while as I wait for my mansion to
                           be prepared.
                        b. The body was designed to express me the medium
                           by which I can express myself.
                        c. When through age, accident, disease or whatever
                           may incapacitate my body so that it can not
                           fulfill its functions God will release me from
                           this body.
                                1. Jesus when on the cross dismissed His
                                   Spirit from His body.
                                2. He said no man takes My life, I give it.
                        d. For the one who believes in Jesus Christ death:
                           is only a metamorphosis a change of body.
                                1. As when a butterfly emerges from the
                                   cocoon.
                                2. The caterpillar designed for one
                                   environment earth, walking, he may get
                                   tired of walking and try to fly. His
                                   body limits him.
                        e. Even so I will move from my tent into my house.
                           II Cor. 5
                        f. What kind of body will we have?