Do DEAD People Watch the Living? Death The Series | Pastor Allen Nolan Sermon

today is week two in our series on death and the purpose of this series is to answer the questions that most people have concerning death such as what happens to a person when they die and what about those who've never heard of Jesus Christ I mean after all Jesus is the only way to heaven so if Jesus is the only way to heaven what about those who have never heard of him will they go to heaven or hell or neither and what about kids if a child dies do they get a free pass to heaven and what about

those that are mentally challenged do they get to go to heaven automatically and what about those that we leave behind does our earthly responsibilities and obligations in the moment we die or do we have a responsibility to make sure that our family those we've left behind are taken care of those are questions that need to be answered and that's the purpose of the series to answer those questions and a few more now last week I explained what happens to a person when they die and I outlined the s

equence of events that occur starting at the moment that person stops breathing and if you were here last week you should be able to explain what happens to a person when they die and you also should be able to outline the sequence of events that occurs starting at the moment that that person stops breathing and if not you need to go back and listen to that sermon again and you need to listen to that sermon over and over again until you can't explain what happens and the sequence of events liste

n to me there is no excuse for a Christian not being able to explain what happens when a person dies or not being able to explain the sequence of events that occur when a person stops breathing and they die no excuse none unless you've not been taught but you've been taught and trust me those questions come up when your neighbors lose a loved one or maybe someone in your family dies and your children come to unison mom dad where's grandma where's grim can grandma and grandma see me you know you

ought to be able to answer those questions now this week I want to answer that question I want to answer the question can people who died see what's happening on this earth in other words can they see us do they know what's happening down here now to be honest with you I can't tell you how many times I've been asked that question by someone who's lost a loved one and it's a legitimate question so I'm gonna show you what the Bible has to say about that and then if I have time I want to talk about

what it's like for those who died and are waiting for their their bodies to be resurrected remember when a person dies their soul either goes to heaven or it goes to hell one or the other but we're talking about the soul not the body the body is buried in the body begins to decompose so you have souls in heaven and you have souls in hell that don't have bodies or at least they don't have physical bodies now sometime in the future their body is going to be resurrected and rejoined to their soul

but that doesn't happen until the rapture for those souls in heaven and for those in hell it doesn't happen until after the Millenium so what's it like to be a soul without a body what's it like to be in heaven with the Lord waiting for the rapture so that your body will be resurrected what's it like if you didn't go to heaven and your inhale but you don't have a body can you feel the pain well we're gonna see what the Bible has to say about that but first things first let's start with the quest

ion can people who've died see what's happening on this earth in other words are our loved ones watching us from heaven people I get that question all the time in fact I'm asked that question more than any other question when someone dies and to be honest with you I used to wonder about this you see my grandfather on my mother's side died before I was born and so I've always wondered does my grandfather know that my mom and dad had more children than just Radel does my grandfather know that I've

become a pastor and that I'm working for the kingdom of God does my grandfather know that I had two beautiful girls did he watch my oldest girl get married did he see my two girls graduate from college so that's a legitimate question and one that I asked years ago so let's answer that question can people who died see what's happening here on this earth now before I give you a definite yes or no let me qualify my answer you can search through the entire Bible and you will find one verse that exp

licitly states that people who died can see what's happening here on this earth but you will find numerous verses that imply it so the Bible doesn't explicitly state that they can but it does state it implicitly everyone knows the difference between explicit and implicit right explicit means it's clearly stated in black and white implicit means it's implied or understood though it's not directly stated so even though the Bible doesn't just come out and say yes our loved ones in heaven can see wh

at's happening here down on this earth it does imply that they can't so the answer is yes let me say that again the answer is yes your loved ones in heaven can see what's happening here on this earth they know what's happening and I'm going to prove it to you this morning turn with me if you would to the book of Hebrews 4:12 chapter verse number one this twelfth chapter of Hebrews follows the 11th chapter which is the Great Hall of faith everyone knows that Hebrews chapter 11 is all about faith

he defines what faith is and then he goes in and he gives all of these Old Testament examples of men and women who lived by faith and then we come to chapter 12 because those people are dead and have gone on so now we get to chapter 12 notice what it says therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us now in this verse Paul is comparing a

Christian to an athlete in our life to a race and this race that he's comparing our life to isn't a sprint it's a marathon and the course of the race is different for each person because God is the one who marks it out just for us notice the last part of verse number 1 in chapter 12 it says and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us you see we all have a different race to run the race that God has set out for me to run is different than the race but God has set out for you to r

un and your race is different from everyone else's we all have a race to run and that's what our life is being compared to but here's what's interesting in this verse in the ancient world athletic events were very common and almost the entire community turned out to watch them especially races and almost every large community had an amphitheater if your city was large enough the taxes paid for an amphitheater with seating for spectators and that's the picture that Paul is painting in this verse

so Paul says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as we're running this race called life now the word witnesses is translated from the Greek word Martucci and Mar 2 2014 it's that person that goes to a court of law they raise the right hand they swear in a Bible to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help their God and then they sit down and they tell everyone what they saw they are a witness or secondly it can refer to a person who's watching an event bef

ore Peyton Manning actually went into the NFL he played for the Tennessee Volunteers and I had season tickets to the Razorbacks years ago and I loved to go watch the razor explain to didn't matter who they were playing because they play in the SEC the greatest conference in the nation but anyways I got a chance to watch Peyton Manning play and we were up by 21 points at the end of the third quarter and so they were going into the fourth quarter with the volunteers behind by 21 points and Peyton

Manning brought Tennessee back scored 28 points in the fourth quarter and beat us by seven man I was irritated but I want you to understand something I witnessed that I saw that happen I was in that Stadium and that's the context of Hebrews 12:1 it fits the second definition not the first so the word Martucci first two people watching an event in other words spectators so what this verse is saying is that we have a great cloud of a crowd of spectators watching us run this race that we call life

and because Paul uses the word cloud it gives the impression that these witnesses are up there in heaven so this verse implies that heaven is watching us run this race called life and yes those in heaven can see us they're watching us now to be honest with you this one verse alone convinces me that those in heaven can watch us because that's what it's saying we have a great cloud of witnesses watching us from heaven run this race that we call life and if up in heaven they're doing and I want you

to understand just like we have our favorite athletes we have our favorite teams we have those we like to watch and those we really don't care about watching I can guarantee you you have family members that have passed on you have loved ones that take a great interest in their family those are the races they want to watch but let's go a little bit further because there's a lot more verses that talk about this in fact I'm only going to give you a few this morning but let's go on turn with me if

you would to the book of Luke the ninth chapter let's read verses 28 through 32 about 8 days later Jesus took Peter John and James up on a mountain to pray and as he was praying the appearance of his face was transformed and his clothes became dazzling white suddenly two men Moses and Elijah appeared and they began talking with Jesus they were glorious to see and they were speaking about the exodus of Jesus from this world which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem so this is occurring shortly

before Jesus is going to Jerusalem for the last time Peter and the others had fallen asleep when they woke up they saw Jesus glory and the two men standing with him now for those of you who are familiar with the Bible you know that this story is about the Transfiguration because the face of Jesus was transformed and even the appearance of his clothes changed and they became dazzling white and that's what the word transfigured means transfigured means a marked change in former appearance in Jesu

s face it changed it also means a change that glorifies or exalts and Jesus clothes became dazzling white it was exalted something that was beyond this world so that's why we call this story the story of the Transfiguration Peter James and John went with Jesus up under this mountain to pray and all of the sudden there's Moses and Elijah and they look glorious and Jesus changes to look like them but here's what I want you to notice Moses and Elijah instantly appeared with Jesus and they were talk

ing with him about his Exodus in fact that's what it actually says in the original Greek they were talking to Jesus about his Exodus in other words his death burial resurrection and ascension to heaven in other words his exodus from this earth now did you catch that Moses and Elijah knew what was happening on this earth they knew what Jesus had been doing and they knew what was about to happen that's why they were talking to Jesus they knew what was getting ready to happen which was his death hi

s burial his resurrection affection and his ascension to heaven now Acts chapter 10 verse number 34 says that God is no respecter of persons so if Moses and Elijah who were in heaven at that time knew what was happening on the earth and they knew what Jesus was doing and when he was about to do don't you think that those who were in heaven now know the very same thing the same things of course they do just think about it if God let Moses and Elijah see what was happening on the earth and God is

no respecter of persons then why wouldn't he let others see what was happening or is happening on this earth of course he allows that to happen because God is no respecter of persons now turn with me if you would to the book of Luke chapter 15 let's read verse number 7 because all of these verses might not explicitly say that those in heaven know what's going on and they can see what's happening but they all imply it they all stayed it implicitly notice what Luke chapter 15 verse number 7 says i

n the same way there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and have it straight away now the first thing I want to do is clear clear up a misconception it doesn't say that there's not joy for those who've never strayed for those who are righteous and they're living for the Lord it doesn't say there's no joy over that there is all it's saying is there's more excitement there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who

repents and returns to God in other words that really gets them going in heaven now let me ask you a question how does heaven know when a sinner repents how does heaven know when someone gets act now force God knows instantly when someone gets saved because he's the one that saves people it's his Holy Spirit that draws people unto Him and it's also his Spirit the Holy Spirit that regenerates that person that makes them born again so we know that God knows instantaneously when someone gets saved

but how does the rest of heaven know is there a scoreboard is there an intercom system in heaven so every time someone gets say God announces it over the intercom he says verse 32 Loren iniya Vegas got saved and if it goes whew and we just got four more in Cherokee County whoa do you think that's what happens people I don't think so I think according to Hebrews chapter 12 verse number one that the Saints are watching us run this race that we call life they are spectators to this they're enjoyin

g all that heaven has to offer but they're also very interested in what's going on on this earth and what's happening to their family and they're watching us run this race that we call life and when they see those that they love become saved they go nuts yes there's lots of joy for those of us who've already have already gotten saved and we're living for the Lord they take great joy in that papaw just like you are wishing and wanting some of your family members to get saved they're wishing and w

anting that too and so they're watching this race that we call life when someone that they love gets saved people they go nuts and I believe that all of heaven rejoices with him because heaven is what the church ought to be and if you remember in the book of Corinthians it says when one member suffers we all suffer with it when one member rejoices we all rejoice with it so when you see or when those family members see someone gets saved and they get excited all of heaven gets excited with them a

nother one in the kingdom of God now let me show you one more scripture turn with me if you would to the book of first Peter chapter 1 verse number 12 they were told that their messages were not for themselves but for you now who is he talking about it says they were toad talking about the Old Testament prophets the prophets were told that the messages their messages were not for themselves but for you and now this good news has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Hol

y Spirit sent from heaven it is also wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen do you see that the angels are eagerly watching the things that were prophesied in the past come to pass but I want you to see that what they're watching is happening at that very moment what their what they are looking at what they are seeing is in real time now if the angels are watching these things happen don't you think the Saints in heaven are doing the very same thing people you be

t they are they're doing exactly what the angels are doing so the Bible might not explicitly state that those in heaven can see what's happening on this earth that they're watching us run this race that we call life but it does imply it and it implies it quite convincingly now there are some scholars that don't believe that those in heaven can see what's happening here on this earth and the reason they don't believe it is because they think that all of the sin all of the rebellious nasaw love th

e violence on this earth would sadden them if they could see it they believe that if our relatives in heaven could see all of our personal failures every time we screw up every time we do something wrong it would sadden them so they believe that God keeps them purposely ignorant it keeps them oblivious to what's happening on the earth to protect them from sadness now this presupposition is built on the belief that there is no such thing as sadness in heaven so let me ask you a question how many

of you believe that there's no sadness in heaven there's no tears there's no sorrow there's no emotional pain instead everyone is happy all the time in heaven how many of you believe that let me see it's all right how many of you don't believe that how many of you will not commit yourself to that so you're sitting on your hands I believe that the majority of you have always believed that there's no such thing as sadness in heaven you believe that there's no sorrow there's no crying there's no em

otional pain everyone is happy every minute of of the day of or I should say of all eternity so as a result of that it's very difficult for you to believe that your loved ones in heaven can see you it's very difficult for you to believe that they know what's happening here on this earth because if they knew how bad you were how many times you screw up the things you're doing or not doing they would be sad when they saw it so in order to keep them happy God's gonna have to keep them ignorant and

it's gonna have to keep them oblivious to what's happening in your life right now you probably have never really thought about that consciously a few people have I think about things like that but it's something subconsciously you believe so when someone's asked you do you believe that your loved one your grandmother that just passed away did you believe that they can see you and and all of her loved ones here on this earth no I don't think that because if she saw what was happening to uncle Tim

my oh I'd be sad if she knew what her grandson or great-grandson was doing on drugs so bad horrible mess and they couldn't be happy in heaven and you know where everyone's happy in heaven now let me ask you again how many of you think that there is no sadness in heaven how many of you think that there's no tears sorrow or emotional pain in heaven go ahead and mitt it if you did go ahead and raise your hand if you maybe up until now you believe that okay you're still not gonna commit that's okay

let me ask you where did you get that idea you see we as Christians have a lot of ideas about God who God is the way God acts we have a lot of ideas about Jesus what he really does what he doesn't do who he was who he really was and we have all of these different ideas about who's gonna get to heaven who's not gonna get to heaven but here's what's interesting the majority of us don't have any scripture to base what we believe on see I used to believe when I became a Christian and then responded

to the call to become a preacher and when I started preaching I used to believe that Christians who've been Christians for 30 and 40 years they knew exactly what they believe in the head scripture to support it and then after I had preached for about 25 years I realized that was a bunch of bunk most Christians don't know what they believe they don't know why they believe it they just believe it they pick up their own theology in this race that we call life but where did we get the idea because I

think the majority of Christians have this idea there's no sadness in heaven everyone's happy all the time there's no sorrow there's no emotional pain there's no tears in heaven well where did we get that idea well we got that idea from the book of Revelation chapter 21 verse number 4 go ahead and turn there if you don't mind I want to read this verse he who is he God God will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain all these things are gone f

orever now we take this scripture and we apply it to now we take this scripture and we say when someone dies and they go to heaven I want you to realize that God wipes away every tear there's no more death or sorrow or crying or pain all these things are gone forever everyone is happy in heaven I mean I still believed wouldn't it but when does this happen because we believe it happens or I should say the majority of Christians believes that happens the moment a person dies that guy comes in he w

ipes away their tears there's no more sorrow there's no more crying there's no more pain but let's go back and read this verse in context to determine when God is going to do this when God is going to wipe away every tear when there will no longer be dead when there's no longer to be any sorrow or crying or pain when does this happen hmm well let's go back and read it in context we'll turn to Revelation chapter 21 this time we're going to read verses 1 through 4 so we can see the context of vers

e 4 notice what it says then I saw a new heaven in a new earth not this old heaven and Old Earth a new heaven and a new earth for the old heaven the heaven we know the skies and this old earth had disappeared and the sea was also gone and I saw the holy city the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven this holy city is actually heaven it's called Jerusalem it's going to actually come down from the new heaven to rest upon the new earth so literally heavens going to come down to earth and

I saw the holy city the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband I heard a loud shout from the throne saying look God's home is now among his people he will live with them and they will be his people God Himself will be with him you will be able to come into the presence of God he will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain all these things are gone forever now people when does this hap

pen this happens after the ODE heaven and earth pass away and God is living among us on this new earth when that happens God will wipe away every tear and there won't be any death there won't be any sorrow there won't be any crying there won't be any pain but listen to me in order to be able to wipe away tears there must first be tears which means prior to this time there are tears now don't get me wrong I believe that heaven is the most beautiful place that we could ever imagine and I believe t

hat it's a place of great joy in a place of great comfort I believe that it's like home and and I'll be honest if we knew how great it was we probably wouldn't want to live on this earth at all just take me home now God I believe that heaven is like that but I don't believe that heaven is a place of ignorance where everyone is oblivious to what's happening on the earth in fact let me show you one more verse that supports what I'm saying one more verse that shows that the people who were on heave

n the souls that are in heaven aren't oblivious to what's going on but they don't really care about what's happening on earth and they don't know about what's going on in earth turn to Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 and 10 now those of you who came on Wednesday nights when I was teaching through the book of Revelation this is going to be familiar to you those of you who didn't come I'm going to try and give you a little brief synopsis about where we are in the book of Revelation but here it goes

this is chapter 6 verses 9 and tip 19 when the lamb broke the fifth seal now this is happening during the tribulation if you remember the Apostle John is having this revelation of Jesus Christ it's not the Book of Revelations plural it's the book of Revelation singular it's a revelation and then be unveiling of what's going to happen at the end time so of course in chapter 4 john is ushered in to heaven and from heaven he's seeing all of these things and he sees our Lord Jesus Christ come becaus

e he's the only one worthy to take this scroll and this scroll is the title deed to earth and on this scroll or seven seals now when he undoes or unloosen zall seven seals the seventh seal starts - seven trumpets the seventh trumpet will start - seven bowls and these are horrible things that come upon the earth we need to understand that but let's go back to the seals Jesus Christ takes the title deed to earth and he loosens the first seal and the first seal is this rider on a horse that comes o

ut he's riding a white horse white of course symbolizes peace so what it tells us is that this person who's going to be able to bring peace to the world is going to come and a four if you were here in Revelations that's the Antichrist he comes as a messenger of peace in the beginning and then when he opens the second seal there's a rider on a red horse the rider on the red horse symbolizes war and there's a Great War that's all over the earth and then he undoes the third seal in the third seal a

rider comes out on a black horse and this is famine this famine is the result of this war that's taken place there's not enough food people are scrambling they'll sell anything they can to get food to leave and sell themselves and then the fourth seal is opened and out comes the writer on The Pale Horse how many of you watch Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider she's reading this as this man on the pale horse this Appaloosa comes riding in but this pale horse symbolizes death because of these first fou

r seals these people have died and many have died because of their faith they stood up for what they believed and if you've heard me teaching the book of Revelation I do not believe that this one world government that's coming that this all of this is this New Age movement that's a bunch of bunk that started in the eighties because no one could imagine what the Islamic faith would do but you're gonna see this Antichrist come who's the al Mahdi these are the 12th Imam he's gonna come on the world

he's gonna create this peace treaty with Israel but then what he ushered in is unbelievable and that's where we are right now reading in this passage of Scripture so let's pick it up when the lamb broke the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who have been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony they shouted to the Lord in other words they're directing the shouting to the Lord and they said o Sovereign Lord holy and true how long before you judge t

he people who belong to this world how long before you avenge our blood for what they have done to us now those who are under the altar or people now they don't have bodies their souls but these are souls in heaven who have been martyred for their faith this happened during the first part of the tribulation but here's what's interesting they're shouting at the Lord to step in and stop the wickedness to stop the violence to stop all the horrible things that are taking place and the reason they th

ey're doing that is because they know what's happening on the earth and as you read through the book of Revelation you get the sense because it implies all the way through the book of Revelation that those in heaven are watching this take place they're seeing it so you have this group who are brokenhearted they're crying they're seeing many of their family members who are believers - that have not been martyred and on this earth and they're wanting God to step in because they can see what's taki

ng place but my point is this those souls in heaven at this point in the tribulation they know what is happening on the earth and they're very upset by it they're brokenhearted by it they're sad and they're saying god how much longer before you step in so as I said the Bible does not explicitly state it doesn't say it and black and white yes your loved ones can see your life from heaven they can see everything that's going it doesn't explicitly say that but it does imply it and I'll be honest wi

th you the proof is too strong to deny I don't have time to go to the second question so let me just keep on this vein of thought for a second let me tell you the hardest thing in the world for me to do is to do a funeral for an unbeliever and let me just ask a favor of you if you have a family member that never went to church and doesn't believe please don't call me to do the funeral you don't have to have a funeral oh you don't have to have a pastor do the funeral but let me tell you why I say

that I feel like I have this tremendous responsibility to present the gospel of Jesus Christ but whenever an unbeliever dies I know where that unbeliever is and when I come out and I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ then the family members of that unbeliever they're smart enough to figure out what I'm saying they're smart enough to know that without Jesus you're not making it to heaven unless Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior you're not gonna be with the Lord when you die and they're smar

t enough to know grandma didn't do that she might have been a good person she might have had a great standard of conduct she might have had great morals but Jesus Christ was never her Lord and let me tell you you're by your standards maybe she's worthy of heaven but God is just and the Bible says there is none righteous no not one and only those who put their trust in Jesus Christ will be saved because our trust is not in our own righteous as our trust is in the righteousness of Jesus that he's

paid for our sins and that God has raised him from the dead because he was and is truly righteous but here's what happens you ask me to do this funeral service and I come in and I try and get family stores and everyone's church never accepted Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior so I've got a choice here do I speak the truth and drive people further away from Jesus because they're in that mad grandma's not navin or do I not preach the gospel and that's what I normally do have to be honest with you I

do some generic little things about God and he's prepared a place for us but I stay off what gets us there because I don't want to offend the family members and then they'll never receive Jesus Christ because they can't stand pastors and they don't want to hear that gospel this is grandmas not in heaven but let me tell you what we're gonna find out next week grandma who's not in heaven now those are those inhale cannot see what's happening on the earth the Bible never implies that but let me te

ll you they do no they've left family behind and they do remember all of their experiences on this earth and now she's praying that someone would tell her family members so they wouldn't have to go to the same place she did but let me tell you it's very difficult as a pastor to preach the funeral of an unbeliever now on the other hand is very easy for me to preach a funeral for someone who's a believer many of you went to Steve Conners funeral service it was one of the easiest funerals that I've

ever had to officiate and I just came out and told the truth and I said this is what Steven wants you to know and then I could lay out the gospel for everyone and tell them what they needed to be saved it didn't offend anyone because that's what Jesus believed in and even the unbelievers don't well yeah that's what Jesus that's what Steve talked about all the time Jesus now let me bring up something else I find that a lot of you who've been raised in homes where your parents were Christians is

really difficult to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and the reason it is is because if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you're saying that no one is good enough to go to heaven on their own they need Jesus but you also have to understand and recognize that maybe your parents or your grandparents are not believers and sometimes that's difficult to do well grandma's a good person they're gonna go to heaven no one's good enough to go to heaven no one's good enough to make it there

if you make it to heaven it's because you put your trust in the only one who was righteous which is Jesus Christ and I know that for some people they react positively to the challenge no one in my family is saved I know that Jesus is the only way so they accept Jesus Christ and they take it as a challenge to win their family to Jesus but then you have the other type of personality and they go you know if I become a Christian I have to admit that every one of my family's lost and going to hell an

d I don't want to admit that so you damned yourself to hell let me tell you the only wise position as to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior because you know he's the only weight in heaven and then say I don't want any of my family members to go to hell I'm gonna do all I can to invite him to church to share the gospel with them to live a life that will make them ask why are you so different and then I'm tell them about Jesus now let me tell you if you don't do that one day you're gonna

die if Christ doesn't return first and then you're gonna be on the ham you're gonna be looking down you're gonna go why did I not tell them about Jesus