This is “Life After Life”. To hear more inspiring messages from Jentezen Franklin, visit http://jentezenfranklin.org/watch?cid… & subscribe to this channel: http://goo.gl/yfkXHy
♪ ♪
>> Welcome to Kingdom Connection
I’m very thankful that you’re
joining me today.
And I want to wish you
and all of your family
a happy Easter.
Today, we celebrate
the resurrection
of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
We believe this,
and I believe no matter
what you’re facing today,
if you’ll lean in
and listen to this message
it’s gonna speak directly
to you.
It’s gonna fill you with hope,
it’s gonna fill you
with faith.
So, let’s go right into
the service,
recorded right here
at Free Chapel.
I believe God is going
to speak to you today.
♪ ♪
>> If you have your Bibles,
I’d like for you to open them
with me to 1 Corinthians 15.
And I wanna zero in on Verse 35,
“But someone will say,
“How are the dead raised up?
And with what body
do they come?”
What’s the body like,
that’s resurrected?
What is it gonna be like when
we are resurrected?
What, how can that happen,
and what’s it going to be like?
Paul says in Verse 36,
“Foolish one, what you sow is
not made alive unless it dies.”
He goes on to say in Verse 37
it’s like a grain.
He compares it to a grain.
Notice that.
And then for the sake of time,
I wanna go down to Verse 51,
“Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed —
in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound,
the dead will
be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible
has put on incorruption,
and the mortal
put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up
in victory.”
Everybody read Verse 55
out loud now,
“ O Death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is your
victory?”
[applause]
I wanna begin today by reminding
you of something that you
don’t like to think about,
and it’s simply this:
people die.
All people die.
And sometimes they die
in strange ways.
For example, I heard and read
about a woman by the name
of Amelia Lynch.
She was standing, true story,
on a street in New York City,
a flower pot fell
from the eighth story
of a building because
it was struck with lightning
and hit her in the head
and killed her.
She wasn’t looking
to die that day.
She just died.
It was a freak accident we
would call it.
Then there was a man
by the name of Carlos Bumbus.
True story.
He was fishing
in the Philippines,
and he opened his mouth to yawn,
and I hope if you open yours
and yawn at me
while I’m preaching —
and while the man was fishing,
he opened his mouth to yawn,
and a small fish jumped out
of the water into his mouth,
got lodged in his throat,
and tragically he choked
to death and died.
I don’t know why
we’re all smiling.
It’s a sad story,
but it’s a true story.
You see, with every tick
of the clock,
every tick of the clock
someone dies somewhere.
One of those ticks
has my name on it.
One of those ticks
has your name on it.
It’s already an appointment.
You don’t make it.
God does.
It’s appointed unto man
once to die.
All these young people looking
at Tik Tok, tick tock,
tick tock.
One of those ticks
has your name on it.
But I have great news
this morning.
When death does come,
it cannot kill you if you’re
in Jesus Christ.
To be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord.
The moment a Christian dies,
their spirit leaves this world
and they’re instantly
in the presence
of God Almighty.
The body is left behind,
but they have gone
to another world.
Jesus has become
the death of death.
Death died when Jesus died
on Calvary and when He
rose on the third day.
I thought about how that
this thing is going to
take place.
He said I show you a mystery
that those that are asleep
are dead in Christ.
1 Thessalonians said,
“They will be raised first,
and we who are alive
and remain,”
meaning there will be
a generation; I believe we
are that generation that
will be alive when the
trumpet sounds, and too,
the dead in Christ shall
rise first because
they’re six feet under,
and they will rise first.
Their bodies, their spirits
will come back with Jesus,
and the spirit will connect
with the body.
The bodies will come alive.
They’ll be given resurrected
bodies because the story
of resurrection is not just
about Jesus raising
from the dead,
but He guaranteed every one
of us will have
a bodily resurrection,
and then those who are living
will be caught up together
with the dead in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
It’s really something,
and it’s like a man in a
machine shop, and he works
all day and he makes a mess
and he sweeps up all the stuff
in there,
and he’s got paper,
and he’s got wood chips,
and he’s got all kinds of stuff.
And if he’s smart, he also has
screws and washers and nuts
that are valuable,
and he doesn’t wanna lose them,
so he has him a magnet.
And so, he’ll reach down
and instead of digging through
all that stuff,
all he’s gotta do is pull up
with a magnet that which
has some of what the magnet
has will connect with it
and gravity loses its hold.
Well, I’m telling you,
the Bible put it like this.
If the same Spirit that raised
Christ Jesus from the dead
dwells in you,
listen to this,
it shall also quicken your
mortal bodies.
One of these days morning,
night, or noon,
I don’t know when,
but soon and very soon a trumpet
is going to sound.
Jesus is going to return,
and suddenly,
those who are living the life
that brings glory to Jesus will
feel a quickening,
and you will receive
if you’re alive a glorified
resurrected body.
The dead in Christ,
and the Bible put it like this,
in the moment,
in the twinkling of an eye.
Everybody look at me
and blink your eyes, boom,
and open.
That’s how quick
it’s gonna happen.
And we shall be changed.
What a moment that’s going
to be when Jesus appears
in the clouds.
1 Corinthians 15 tells us
that we’re going to have
resurrected bodies,
and somebody asked the apostle
Paul how can the body
be resurrected.
It’s a great question.
I wanna give you how.
You know, I read a little
true story about a man
in London, England
by the name of Solomon Peas.
P-E-A-S.
Peas.
Solomon Peas.
And he thought he’d have
fun with it.
It was his death,
and he made sure that he left
the wording on his tombstone.
Here’s what it said,
“Beneath this sod and beneath
these trees lies the body
of Solomon Peas.
But this ain’t the peas.
It’s just the pod.
The peas shelled out
and went to God.”
I like that.
Well, I just wanna tell you
today that this body
is just the pod
and one of these days we’re
gonna shed it, and we’re gonna
go be with God and then
He’s gonna give us
a glorified resurrected body
at that moment.
The apostle Paul said
to King Agrippa,
“Why should it be considered
an incredible thing
to you that God
can raise the dead?”
I’m gonna tell you something.
If you can get past Genesis 1:1,
“In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth,”
you ought to be able
to believe anything.
And if God could take nothing
and make it into something,
He can take what’s left
of a body and resurrect it
and cause it to have life
eternal because He’s that
kind of God.
He said it’s like a grain
and unless a grain falls
to the ground,
is sown into the ground
and then it decays and it rots
and it dies, but inside of
that grain after
it’s buried is a source of life
that is germinated.
You can’t put your finger on it,
but even though it looks bad,
decayed, and dead,
there is a source of life
that is germinating,
and he used grain because
he wanted us to understand
when it went into the ground
it’s coming out of the ground
what it was,
and that is exactly how
our resurrected bodies will be.
It’s like grain.
Let me give you an example.
Somebody says, well,
how can the body be resurrected?
Think about a man who,
let’s say he was born in Florida
many years ago,
and he lived his life
and then he went to Viet Nam
and while he was in Viet Nam
serving he stepped
on a land mine and blew his
leg up and his leg was left
in Viet Nam, and he came home
and maybe he moved to Georgia
and got a job
at a lumber mill and somehow
he accidentally cut two
of his fingers off.
I’m just making this story up,
so, and the fingers fell off
in Georgia and then let’s
say he felt the call
to preach and went to Africa
and preached in Africa
until he died,
and they buried him under
an apple tree, and the roots
of that apple tree go down
into the dirt, and they draw
the nutrients from his decayed
body and through the roots
it feeds the tree,
and suddenly, there’s apples
on the tree and the apples
fall off of the tree
and a hog comes along
and eats the apples
and goes and throws
all over the place.
How in the world is that
man’s body who has a leg
in Viet Nam and fingers
in Georgia and body parts all
over Africa, how is God
going to raise him up?
The Bible is so astounding
that God before scientists
ever discovered D.N.A.
and stem cell research,
God said in Psalms 139:16,
“Your eyes did see my substance,
yet when I was unformed
and in your book
all my body parts or members
were written and recorded
when there were none of them.”
You know what he’s describing?
You know, everything that you
are comes out of stem cells
and comes out of D.N.A.
D.N.A. is what tells
the length of your fingers,
your arms,
the color of your hair.
Everything comes out of
your D.N.A., and God said
I had it all in a book,
all your body parts.
I had it coded in,
and I don’t care how much you
change, you will always be you
because you have
your D.N.A. code.
Now, what I want you
to understand is just like
that seed goes into the ground,
one day when the trumpet sounds
I don’t care where you are.
I don’t care if you’ve got
a leg in Viet Nam
and fingers in Africa.
I don’t care if you’ve
been torn to pieces,
and your body is decayed.
God’s gonna punch your card
in up in heaven.
He’s got a book that’s got
your D.N.A.
and suddenly that body
will just like the valley
of dry bones, bones will come
to bones in the moment,
in the twinkling of an eye,
and you’re gonna get a
resurrected body,
and it will be powerful
and it will be eternal.
Hallelujah!
Secondly, and I just got
three quick points,
but secondly, he talks about
the individual uniqueness
of the resurrected body,
Paul does.
God does not make copies.
He makes originals.
God is not gonna make us
all the same when we get
glorified, we’re all gonna
put on white robes
and walk before — no.
We’re gonna be.
You will be you.
I will be me.
We will know one another.
The Bible is very clear
about that.
When Moses and Elijah went on
the mountain, you know,
they lived 1,500 years before
Jesus came on the earth,
and when they went
on the Mount of Transfiguration
with Jesus,
the Bible said the disciples
instantly knew who Elijah
was and who Moses was
and who Jesus was,
and by the way,
that’s a beautiful picture
of the Rapture because
it had Moses up there,
and Moses died and the angel
had to fight, Michael the angel,
had to fight the devil
over his body ‘cause
Satan wanted his body.
He was buried in the
Mountain of Nebo.
Now watch this.
You’ve got those who die
in Christ on the Mountain
of Transfiguration,
and then who else was there?
Elijah.
Elijah never died.
He was called up
in a fiery chariot.
So, you’ve got the living
and the dead and right
in the middle you’ve got
Jesus lighting them up.
Now, what I want you to
understand is in heaven
there will be a uniqueness
to you, and you will be
known even as you know.
If you know people here,
you will know them there,
but you will have
supernatural knowledge.
Your mind will be so increased.
You only use a small percentage
of your brain,
but you’ll know everybody
because of the kindred-ship
of the fellowship of the Blood
and the Body of Jesus Christ.
You will just know everybody,
and they’ll know you.
You know, it’s bad when
people come up to me and
they say, “Do you remember me?”
That’s my most dreaded question
that somebody can ask me.
And I’m good with faces,
and I try not to lie ‘cause
I don’t wanna go to hell,
so I’ll say, “Remind me.”
I’m giving y’all my secrets.
“You look familiar,”
is my go to.
But in heaven,
I’ll never be embarrassed.
I’ll know that one
and that one, and Paul will
know me, and Peter will
know me and know you,
and we’re gonna have a — whoa!
Hallelujah!
Take a praise break.
Just take a praise break.
Woo!
I feel like shouting.
I’m enjoying my own preaching.
Hallelujah!
God is a god of variety,
and He says in this text,
“Just as a star’s glory
one from another,”
one is brighter than the other,
“so will the resurrection
of the dead be.”
Just like bodies are different
from one another.
Just like snowflakes.
There are no two
that are the same.
No two fingerprints
that are the same.
A little boy got a gift
from his mother for Christmas.
It was fingerprint set,
and she came to him and said,
“How do you like it, son?”
And he said, “Well, I like
it mom, but the man who wrote
the instructions lied.”
And she said,
“Why do you say that, son?”
He said, “Because he said
that there’s only one
fingerprint for every person,
and that’s not true.”
He said, “I know for a fact
that my dad and Santa Claus
and whoever keeps breaking
into my piggy bank,
all three have
the same fingerprint.”
I’m telling you today that
if you know,
if you know somebody here,
you will know them there.
I believe the first people
we’ll see when we go through
the gates of pearl
will be the people in our
own family that have gone
before us.
I’ve got a daddy over there.
I’ve got a brother over there.
And because of Jesus
and His love for me
and my family, one day we’re
gonna be reunited on
streets of gold.
The sorrow will be gone.
The pain will be gone.
God shall wipe every tear
from our eyes.
We’re headed to a mighty,
mighty place.
We will know each
other in heaven.
Thirdly, let me give you this,
and this is the great news
right here now.
He said not only will you
be like a grain and not
only will you be unique,
but he said in your
resurrected body it will
be infused with perfection,
that the best
that you’ve ever been,
at the tiptop shape that
you’ve ever been in,
it’s just not that good.
Let me put it like Paul put it.
He said we’re sown,
meaning we go into the ground
in corruption,
but we’re raised
in incorruption.
The word corruption
means decay.
He said we’re sown in,
and listen to these words,
dishonor but raised in glory.
Sown in weakness
but raised in power.
Sown in natural body,
Paul said, but raised
a spiritual body.
Your resurrected body
will be infused with perfection.
You’ve never known the body
you’re about to have.
You say I’m not sure I want
my body in heaven.
I get that.
I understand that,
but you’ll want the one that
God has for you.
You’ll like it.
Your I.Q.
will be unbelievable.
Your body will be unbelievable.
He said, God said,
I’ll take you as your sown
in dishonor,
but you’ll be raised in glory.
You know what?
God wants us all to have
a glorious body.
I love that.
Who would say today you
have a glorious body?
Who would say that?
Some of you really think
you’re something,
but all I would say to you after
all your PX 90 and all
your workouts and all your gym,
and I’m all for it.
I do it myself.
I do.
That’s how I keep
my high school figure.
Amen.
But after it’s all said
and done, all I’d say to you
who are in tiptop shape,
I mean, ripped and cut
and all of that,
all I would say to you
is give it time.
You’re gonna be attacked
by the four Bs: baldness,
bifocals, bunions, and bulges.
It’s gonna get you
sooner or later.
But one of these days God said
I’m gonna give you
a glorious body.
We’ve never seen.
If God were to cause Adam
to step out of God’s assembly
line like He made him,
we’ve never seen him ourselves
not under the curse.
If you could have seen the body
that Adam had and Eve had
before the fall, my Lord,
if Adam walked out here,
the women would swoon and faint,
and the man would need prayer
when they saw Eve
because you would not
believe the glorious
bodies God had for them.
Boy, that makes me happy
because after a year
of COVID and after a year
of death and breathing machines
and funerals and disease
and cancer,
one of these days we’re gonna
get a resurrected body
that’s not susceptible
to sickness, to pain,
to aches, to hurt.
What a Redeemer we have
that He says I don’t just
want your spirit.
I’m gonna redeem your body
and give you a body that
is glorious.
Let me tell you
what the Scripture says.
It says that, and I just wanna
read it right out of the text
because it’s
a good place to end.
Listen to what he says.
He says, “Now let me show you
a mystery in the moment,
in the twinkling of an eye
the trumpet will sound,
the dead will be
raised incorruptible.”
Verse 54, “So, when
this corruption has put
on incorruption,
mortal will put on immortality.
Then it will be brought to pass.
Death is swallowed up
in victory.
And then he makes this
powerful statement.
Listen.
“O Death, where is your sting?”
It’s two anthems there.
One for the living
and one for the dead.
The first one is for those,
that generation that is alive
that never sees death
because they get raptured,
and so that’s their part
of the song, “O Death,
where’s your sting?”
I never felt your sting, death.
What happened?
We’re gonna get raptured.
But then the second anthem
is for the dead because they’re
gonna look back at the plot
that they were buried in
and say, “O grave,
where is your victory?”
The tombstone is toppled.
The grave has exploded
with resurrection.
The coffin has been
burst wide open.
And the living will say,
“Death, where is your sting?
I never felt your stinger.”
There was a little boy
and a little girl who were in
the garden with their mother,
and while they were
in the garden,
a bumble bee came and it stung
the boy and after
it stung the boy,
the little sister saw it,
and it started buzzing
all around her,
and she got hysterical
and started screaming,
panicking as it was buzzing
thinking that it was gonna land
and sting her, and the mother
said, “Come here, darling.
It’s alright.”
And she took the hand
of that boy,
and she showed the stinger
that was in his hand
from that bumble bee,
and she said,
“Look. It doesn’t have
a stinger anymore.
The bee left the stinger
in your brother.
All it’s got is the buzz.”
I have an elder brother
by the name of Jesus,
and He took the stinger out
of death for me.
And yeah, it’s scary to hear
a bad report and know
that you’re gonna die.
Nobody looks forward to it,
but all that death
has is the buzz.
It doesn’t have the stinger
for me anymore because,
death, where is your sting?
Grave, where is your victory?
It’s not there anymore.
♪ ♪
>> O Death, where is your sting?
O Grave, where is your victory?
There’s been so much death,
and so much sickness
going on in the world,
through the pandemic
and everything else,
we’ve made it through.
That I just want to ask
the grave how it can conquer
one who will not die.
Jesus paid it all when He
died on the cross.
He did die, but He rose again.
He did it for you.
There is nothing you have done
that cannot be forgiven
right now.
It’s why Jesus came
to this earth.
God in flesh,
to take our sins
and transgressions
and nail them to the cross.
And all for you today.
Peace and joy and
eternal life.
You can receive that
forgiveness right where
you are.
You need to know that
we can’t earn it,
and we don’t deserve it,
it’s His mercy.
It’s His grace,
it’s His love
that makes it possible.
And all you have to do is
call on His name today.
Right now, wherever you are,
pray this prayer.
Say, “Lord, Jesus,
I come to you today.
I give you my life.
I ask you to cleanse me,
and wash me of all of my sins.
I believe in you, Jesus.
I put my faith and my trust
in you, Jesus.
I boldly proclaim today
that you are my savior,
and you’re the one who
gives me the power
of resurrection
in my own life,
to come back, to fight,
and to win, and to conquer,
and to triumph through
your blood on the cross.
I receive your forgiveness.
Set me free from every bondage.
Today, Lord, I surrender
all to you.”
I believe if you prayed
that prayer, Jesus heard
your cry.
I know He did.
And listen, you can go online
and we have free resources
just for you.
Call the number that’s
on the screen,
visit our website,
we’d love to hear from you.
We’d love to hear
your testimony,
and we’d love to pray with you.
And we want to send you
our free salvation journey kit.
We would just really
appreciate you letting us know
what a difference Jesus has made
in your life.
In our closing moments,
I want to thank you
for a miracle you’ve
been a part of.
For your response to the
Ukraine relief projects
that we’ve had ongoing,
we have been reaching
hundreds of thousands
of people who are in great need
right now.
Families, and mothers,
and children that are stranded
in the middle of the war
in Ukraine,
and they’re being met with
safe shelter and food,
and water, and the basic
necessities of life.
Because of you, we’ve been able
to already send over
$500,000 to the Ukraine
to help ministries
on the ground.
Because of your incredible
generosity, the money is
going straight to the churches
that have been transformed
into refugee camps and places
where babies, and mothers,
and children are living,
and being taken care of
even as I speak.
And you did it unto
the least of these.
They’ve left everything behind
as you can imagine,
and they’re just seeking
safety for their families.
And because of you,
they’re being met not only
with the basic necessities
of life, but also the love
of Jesus Christ.
These people need our help.
It’s an urgent situation.
We can’t let up,
we can’t stop.
We need your help.
We cannot do this without
your support.
It’s really humbling to know
that every penny you give
into this ministry,
our television ministry,
we made a great decision
a long time ago that all
resources would go
to preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, number one,
through the television airwaves,
all over the planet.
But secondly, that we would
take the resources you give
and we would sow it into
the greatest needs we could find
all over the earth.
God has helped us to be faithful
to that, and we’re doing it
again and a miracle is in
the making.
And we need to help the people
of Ukraine.
Thank you for joining us today.
Pray about what God would
have you do.
We need to hear from you
this month.
Lord, bless the people
in Jesus’ mighty name.
Thank you, and God bless you.
Happy Easter everybody,
Jesus is alive.
>> God, I need your help.
>> Are you the old pro?
>> I am old.
How do you see yourself?
Not just in God,
but your whole existence,
your life.
>> I have a son who hates me
and my wife and I have been
separated for about 5 years.
>> Sounds like your game
could use a mulligan.
Sometimes God uses bad
things for good.
>> Ladies and gentlemen,
make your tee time.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
>> Thank you for your
continued support
of this ministry.
For more information about this
message, and other ministry
resources, visit us online at
JentezenFranklin.tv.