Eternal Life

The dead in Christ will rise first. So look at this. The nations, verse 18, the nations were angry and your wrath has come and the time of the dead.

So there is the dead and there is the dead in Christ. Two different categories. There is the dead, here John the Beloved is saying the dead will be judged.

But here Saint Paul is saying the dead in Christ will rise first to be with him. Now, here is my answer to everyone that says the Saints are dead. They don't hear us.

They don't see us. They don't pray for us. Unfortunately, so said some people claim to be Christians but have this understanding and this belief that when someone who belongs to Jesus Christ departs from this world and goes to Paradise, they are dead because Saint Paul says they are dead in Christ and the dead do not hear, do not talk, do not walk.

A dead is a dead person. That's it. They come to a full halt.

So they say the Saints are dead because they are dead in Christ. That's what Saint Paul says. Wow.

They don't hear us. Amazing. Obviously, it is not true.

We need to come back to the apostolic teachings, not any teachings, church father's teachings that have been received from the twelve apostles of Christ whom they received from the mouth of the master himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We need to come back to the true teachings, my beloved. There is the dead and there is the dead in Christ.

The dead will be judged but the dead in Christ will rise first to be with him forever in his holy presence rejoicing in his holy presence. Saint Paul in his epistle to the Romans says the wage of sin is death, correct? The wage of sin is death. Now, these are the dead, meaning these are the people that rejected Jesus Christ.

The nation were angry. The nations were angry because Jesus reigned. So these people chose to live in sin.

These people chose to live in darkness. The wages of sin is death. So these are dead in their sins.

This what you call a dead person truly dead when they are living in sin, the unrepentant soul is a truly dead person. Why? Because when Adam broke God's word in the Garden of Eden, something happened. There is two kinds of deaths.

There is the biological physical death and there is that spiritual death. The biological physical death is when the spirit departs from the body, separates from the body. This is called a biological physical death when the spirit leaves the body.

But there is one death that is forever. This one is temporal. When the spirit leaves the body is a temporal death.

But when the spirit leaves the Creator, that's when that person is truly dead. When the spirit separates from the Creator, from God himself. When we sin, our spirit separates from God.

This is the true death. To this kind of a person you call a dead person. But those, according to St. Paul, 1 Thessalonians 4.16, they are dead in Christ.

Everyone who is dead in Christ is living. Everyone who is dead because of sin cannot live. Are you guys cold? Is the air cold? No? You're okay? Because I saw you sitting like that.

I thought maybe you're freezing. I'm wearing a tent. I don't feel it much.

Dead in Christ. When St. Paul talks, we need to pay attention. The way he speaks is extremely deep.

You can't take it at a surface level. It's very deep. Now, who is dead in Christ? A saint.

Now, who is a saint? If I ask anyone, what is the same to you? When you hear the word saint, what do you think of first? Naturally, at a very sort of nutshell, in a very simplistic approach, when you hear the saint, you say, well, a saint is someone that does miracles and raises the dead and does wonders and mighty powers. To me, that's a saint. But really, a saint is not someone that raises the dead, heals the sick and does wonders and miracles.

That's not a saint. A saint literally is someone who is not earthly. In the Greek word, and I have a couple of people here that are very well informed and educated in the Greek language.

Therefore, I need to watch what I say and please correct me if my pronunciation is not as good as it should be. Agios in Greek is a compounded word. Agi means not, ios earthly.

So agios means not earthly, but agios is for the holy one, the saint or the holy one. It is referred to God, the holy and those who are godly, following God, they become godly. They are also holy.

So a saint is agios, meaning not earthly. A saint is not defined or determined by just raising the dead and healing the sick. Judas Iscariot healed the sick, cast demons out of people.

He did miracles and wonders in Jesus name and at the end he failed. So just by raising the dead and doing wonders and miracles that does not guarantee that you'll end up a saint. But what will guarantee you to be a saint with the Lord forever when you and I become not earthly? What does it mean not earthly? Meaning I walk on earth, but I live with Christ.

I am here on earth, but my heart is with the Lord. I'm physically going and coming, but my mind, my soul, my whole being is dwelling with the Lord in the heaven of all heavens. Now, this is a saint.

A person of character. In the church, outside the church, the same person. Not in the church one thing, outside something else.

No, a saint is someone who is not earthly, meaning wherever you are, whatever you do, you are all doing it for the Lord. When you are not earthly, you are imitating the angels. Angels are not earthly.

What do angels do? They worship God always, not sometimes. They adhere to his word always, not sometimes. They are in his holy presence always, not sometimes.

Sometimes we are sheep and sometimes we are goats. When I listen to Christ, I'm a sheep. When I disobey Christ, I become a goat.

Sometimes I'm in his light and sometimes I'm in the club in the darkness of Satan. But angels are always in the presence and the light of the Lord. When you become a saint, you end up being like an angel.

Not earthly. So who is dead in Christ? That person that becomes not earthly. Saint Paul says dead in Christ.

It means I have died to my old person completely in order for Christ to live in me completely. This is a dead person in Christ. When I died to the old Adam, the one who is the troublemaker, the one who breaks God's word and disobey, the one who became a goat that never listens to the shepherd.

When I die to that old person, no more. The flesh takes me wherever, makes me do whatever, no more. Next time the flesh wants to go to the club.

I'll say shut up, be quiet. I'm dragging you to the church. Next time the body says I want to use a foul language.

I'll say shut up. I will drag you to the church and I'll praise the Lord through you. Next time you want to steal, you want to break, you want to fight, no more.

I surrender to the Lord. I want to be that vessel of glory for his holy name. I want the Lord to use me from now on.

I don't want the world to use me and abuse me anymore. I want Jesus to use me for his glory and his holy name's sake. When you die to your old person, then you are dead in Christ.

When you live to your old person, you are dead to your own self. You are detached from Christ. When you live for yourself, you're dead.

When you live for Christ, you are dead in Christ. Because the only way for Christ to live in you and me, we need to die to the former Adam in order the latter Adam, Jesus Christ to live in us fully. Why some people were able to do more than others? Because those people who did more and achieved more than others, they gave up on their life and on themselves more and more.

They effaced, they erased themselves. They diminished for Christ to be augmented in them, to be magnified in them, to be seen more and more. The more you die to yourself, the more Christ lives in you and the more Christ lives in you, then you can only say I am living.

It is impossible for someone to be dead in Christ and be dead. Because when you are in Christ, you are in the one who is the source of life. How can you be in the one who is the source of life and say I'm dead? It's just impossible.

Christ is life. When you are in him, you're living, but not living for yourself, living for him. That is the only way to live.

When you live for Christ, not for yourself. Those who rejected Christ, they got angry and the dead will be judged by him because they chose to remain in sin, living in sin. Those who are dead in Christ, they are the true living people of God.

Those who are in paradise are truly living. Through the grace of God, through the grace of the Lord, they can see us, they can pray for us, they can help us, everything through the Lord, everything, but they cannot be dead. Because they died in Christ.

They died to their old sinful nature in order to live in this holy perfect nature of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Are you with me? Yes. So next time somebody says a saint is dead, say yes, but can you please continue and say dead in Christ, not just dead.

Because dead and dead only, you're referring to a sinner, not a saint. But dead in Christ, now you're referring to a saint, not a sinner.