July 10, 2006

Monday is upon us. A new opportunity to learn about church growth, mission, and evangelism. Today we are going to start a discussion of death and the life thereafter. The Rev. Billy Graham just happens to have a book called Death and the Life Thereafter. Get it. It's terrific.

If we are in a battle with this enemy called Death, I believe we should learn about it, in order to learn about the dying experience. We need to know how to face that enemy on our own behalf, and how to deal with the inevitable deaths of loved ones and friends.

 

Death is perennial. CS Lewis pointed out during WWII that war does not increase death; death is total in every generation. Why me? Why now? Why this?

 

Why must we die? The Bible says that all men are appointed to die once. We can fight it, we can avoid it, we can ignore it, but death ultimately intrudes into our well planned lives and change things around. We want to deny death, but the fact that the body is in the ground and the soul of the deceased has departed is more than we like to admit.

 

Today we are confronted with so many voices telling us how to live and this is a reasonable ambition, but they indicate that we are desperately trying to cling to this present world. Life is transitory. If we want to make the most of life, we need to face the fact that it is going to end. Only those who are prepared to die are prepared to live.

 

Can we afford to ignore the warnings of our ultimate enemy? We need to break the conspiracy of silence about the subject with a biblically sound, realistic approach. While death was not part of Godâ??s original plan, we cannot escape it. Death never takes a holiday.

 

Adolescents are notorious for denying the reality of death; it is the farthest thing from their minds. In the vigor of youth they take life for granted, and perhaps they should at that age, but all of us tend to take life for granted when times are good. Death is the last thing on our minds when we have full stomachs. But, if the individual has a mind and feelings, there is no way to deny the reality.

 

Paul proclaimed that death is the last enemy, but it need not be feared. The Bible stresses that death is an enemy both of God and us. We are not talking about a death that is a release from pain, debilitating disease, or advanced age, but death that leaves fragments of many promising careers and lives, children who have not yet learned to play in the sunshine.

 

Why is death an enemy of God? Because it destroys life, in contrast to God who is the creator and author of life. The Bible tells us that neither sin nor pain, disease nor death were part of Godâ??s original plan for man. Death was the penalty for sin.

 

Death is the common lot of every human being and of every other living thing-both plant and animal. Sin and death, the Bible tells us, have afflicted the whole of Godâ??s creation, including the natural world, and only when Christ comes in His glory at the end of the present era will sin be eradicated and creation restored to Godâ??s original plan. There will be a generation of believers who will not die. Those who are alive when Christ returns in glory will not die but will be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye.

 

Christians are not immune to the fear of death. Death is not always a beautiful release, but an enemy that separates. It does not respect the young or the old, the good or the evil, the Christian or the heathen.

 

The way of Christ assures us that, while death is a certainty, so is heaven. For the Christian, death can be faced realistically and with victory for he knows that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not a sign of weakness for the Christian to face death with reluctance. We can find peace, assurance, triumph, and even humor in a subject that is avoided by many but vitally important and inevitable to everyone.

Thanks again for joining us. And be sure to visit our sponsor's website: www.thegreatcommissionchurch.org. They always appreciate company. Send your comments to: [e-mail]

Until tomorrow, thanks, and God bless.

Pastor Bob Emery