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It Is Written

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Eric Flickinger

Clinton Wahlen

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

06 Confidence Only in Christ

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

03 Life and Death

04 Unity Through Humility

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

07 A Heavenly Citizenship

John Bradshaw

Great Characters of the Bible: Abraham

08 The Preeminence of Christ

09 Reconciliation and Hope

10 Complete in Christ

11 Living With Christ

12 Living with Each Other

♪ Welcome to Sabbath School brought to you by It Is Written.

We are looking this quarter at Christ in the books of Philippians and Colossians, uniting heaven and earth.

We're looking at life and death, a fascinating subject.

Father, we thank you for being with us today and giving us an opportunity to learn more about Christ through the writings of Paul.

We ask that your blessing would be upon us and that we would find encouragement from this subject today.

Well, we're grateful that you are here, but we are also grateful that the author of this quarter's Sabbath school lesson is here as well.

He is an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute, and he especially enjoys studying the New Testament and hermeneutics.

So this week we're looking at life and death.

Paul writes a lot about the subject of life.

He also writes a lot about the subject of death.

Last week we talked about him being in chains and in prison and going through a lot of challenges and difficult things.

How did he view death And how can that help us to face something that we're all probably going to face?

Well, Eric, it's interesting, actually, very interesting to look at Paul's attitude because it's so different from what we generally think of.

You know, there are a lot of ideas out there about death, what it's like, even people that claim to have come back from the dead, which, you know, this is not serious really in most cases.

But Paul looked at death as being closer to Jesus because he suffered a lot and you know more than probably anyone ever other than Jesus has suffered we could almost say and yet he he looked forward to the possibility, should that arise, of having the privilege of dying for Jesus.

So Paul's attitude toward death was not looking to die, but not being afraid of death.

And I like actually how it says it in Hebrews 2.

It says, speaking of Jesus, "'Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he, Jesus himself, likewise, shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

So Paul was free of fear of death, and we can be too.

You know, you mentioned some of the things that Paul has gone through.

There are few people who have probably suffered more than Paul, with the exception of Jesus.

But you make mention of this in the lesson on, I think it's Sunday's lesson.

You quote Paul in 2 Corinthians 11, and verses 23 through, really down through 29.

I'm not gonna read the entire passage, but it says, Paul says, "'He was in prisons more frequently and deaths often.'" It says, "'From the Jews, 5 times I received 40 stripes minus 1.

And unless I miss my guess, this is probably not a comprehensive list.

There were probably some other things that he went through and that he had not yet gone through at the point that he wrote this, that would make us, would make our jaw drop even more.

And then of course on the tail end he tacks on besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches.

So he says, I've been through the ringer and I've got to take care of the churches on top of all of this.

So when he's been through all these things, you can almost understand how he would say, you know, I mean, not that he's looking forward to death, but it's not something he's afraid of.

Yes, he was basically, he brushed with death many times.

I mean, being stoned once would be enough, but he was stoned, it says, 3 times here, and shipwrecked.

If you think about this journey in Axe to Rome, Everyone was fearing for their lives.

The captain thought for sure everything was lost.

And an angel came to Paul and said, you know, you will be okay.

I have given your life and the lives of all on board.

So, you know, our lives are in God's hands.

Whether we live or die, we are in God's hands.

And it's ultimately His decision, really our every heartbeat is by His grace and power.

And so if I come close to death but I survive, the conclusion I reach, and I've been in that situation more often than I would like to admit, is that my work is not yet done.

God's purpose is still in the future for my life.

But Much of that may be because there's a misunderstanding of what death is, what death is like.

I mean, you ask a dozen people what happens when a person dies, you're probably gonna get 13 different answers.

Because everybody's got a different, we'll call it an opinion of what death is like.

What does Paul have to say about what death is like?

And the Bible more generally, I'm going to assume that Paul agrees with the Bible, which he does.

But What do we learn about death in the Bible?

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.

For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Corinthians 15.

So this is Paul's idea that death is a sleep.

We can go to John 11, for example, the classic case of Lazarus.

He told the disciples, Lazarus sleeps, but I go to wake him up.

And so they thought, well, if he's sick, let him sleep.

But Jesus then said plainly, Lazarus is dead.

So the question is, you know, after 4 days, where was Lazarus?

Now, some people have the idea when we die, we go to heaven.

Lazarus, if he were in heaven, you know, enjoying days, you know, If you were in Heaven, enjoying several days in Heaven, would you want to come back to this Earth?

I can imagine maybe, Eric, an angel coming to Lazarus and saying, in that case, I'm sorry, Lazarus, but You've got to go back.

And I can imagine Lazarus, when he came back out of the grave and seeing Jesus there, you know, what kind of a friend are you?

You know, here I was up in heaven, and now you brought me back down here.

Yeah, but actually, The Bible is very clear.

In Ecclesiastes chapter 9, for example, there are other passages we could look at, but this is a very clear passage.

Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 5, For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished.

Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun." And then verse 10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

But it's also, on the other hand, it's a very comforting thought, you know, that we will be asleep.

You know, my mother passed away some years ago.

And in the last part of her life, she was very sick.

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Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven & Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

03 Life and Death

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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