SUNDAY SERVICES:

Friday Epistle 7.12.13 Dear Member of New Covenant -- A Couple Questions. Peter picked Barbara and me up at the airport yesterday afternoon.  This morning I returned the favor.  On the way to MCO we listened to a sermon, an app on his phone. The speaker was responding to some golfing friends who had asked, or better put, challenged, “does one need to belong to a church to be a Christian?”  Actually, his golfing friends weren’t looking for an answer or even an opinion -- emphatically and absolutely not was their stand.  The speaker shared none-the-less, or all-the-more, that as he read his Bible all of the metaphors for being a Christian included others e.g. the body, a family, a building.  In other words, he found no basis in the scriptures for an isolated Christian.  Just as he began to share about the invisible church and the visible church -- Southwest Airlines was before us, so the sermon along with Peter and his phone exited.

What would have been your answer to that question?  Here’s another one.

What if someone asked you -- “How does one get to heaven?”

Peter Pan may tell us the route to Never Land, “second star to the right and straight on till morning,” but that’s not exactly heaven.  Hardly, even with flying thrown in.

This Sunday a lawyer asks Jesus a question -- “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  If someone were to ask you a similar question, how would you answer?  Would you be able to say what the Bible has to say about eternal life?  It has always seemed odd to me that since death is the one thing we all hold in common, why is it that we spend so little time living in the now in light of the then?  Here’s some help.

I know it’s a bit long, but then the issue is eternity.  And a it’s worthy Bible Study to do with others.

Blessings, Carl+

Here, to ponder, is what one person put together from what your Bible has to say.

Eternal Life

Christ is (1 John 1:2; 5:20)

Revealed by Christ (John 6:68; 2 Timothy 1:10)

To know God and Christ is (John 17:3)

GIVEN

By God (Psalm 133:3; Romans 6:23)

By Christ (John 6:27; 10:28)

In Christ (1 John 5:11)

Through Christ (Romans 5:21; 6:23)

To all given to Christ (John 17:2)

To those who believe in God (John 5:24)

To those who believe in Christ (John 3:15, 16; 6:40, 47)

To those who hate life for Christ (John 12:25)

In answer to prayer (Psalm 21:4)

Revealed in the Scriptures (John 5:39)

RESULTS FROM

Drinking the water of life (John 4:14)

Eating the bread of life (John 6:50-58)

Eating of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7)

They who are ordained to, believe the gospel (Acts 13:48)

SAINTS

Have promises of (1 Timothy 4:8; 2 Timothy 1:1; Titus 1:2; 1 John 2:25)

Have hope of (Titus 1:2; 3:7)

May have assurance of (2 Corinthians 5:1; 1 John 5:13)

Shall reap, through the Spirit (Galatians 6:8)

Shall inherit (Matthew 19:29)

Look for the mercy of God to (Jude 1:21)

Should lay hold of (1 Timothy 6:12, 19)

Are preserved to (John 10:28, 29)

Shall rise to (Daniel 12:2; John 5:29)

Shall go into (Matthew 25:46)

Shall reign in (Daniel 7:18; Romans 5:17)

The self-righteous think to inherit, by works (Mark 10:17)

Cannot be inherited by works (Romans 2:7; 3:10-19)

THE WICKED

Have not (1 John 3:15)

Judge themselves unworthy of (Acts 13:46)

Exhortation to seek (John 6:27)

Better yet! Consider from John’s gospel and The Revelation of John, what the one true authority on the subject has to say… These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.  Rev 2.8 

John 3:15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

John 3:16  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John the Baptist’s testimony)

John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.

John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

John 5:25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

John 5:29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

John 6:57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

John 5:39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,

John 6:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

John 6:40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 6:54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:68  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (Peter’s words)

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

John 12:25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

John 17:2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Rev. 2:7  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. 8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.

Rev. 2:10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Rev. 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

Rev. 22:14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.