Download Because of caring United Methodists, Jean

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Sep 30 7
Death, the promises of Scripture on heaven and the resurrection.
Psalm 86:1-7 Romans 8:31-39
Children’s Time: Cup remains from back yard, taking care of this world while we wait
I’ve been preaching a series of sermons on caring for each other
and how we can be a more caring people. I planned talk today about how
we can offer care to those going through transitions of aging and
diminished capabilities and even facing death. But as I prepared I began
to think what we might need most is a reminder of the hope we have in
Jesus Christ. We are all marching inevitably toward death in our
physical lives. Some will arrive sooner than others, but it is the reality
for every living thing. What can we say as Christians in the face of
death?
We live in a society obsessed with postponing death. Medical care
is a fundamental right and primary concern. We spend billions
preventative screening and diagnostic testing. We speak of the
importance of eating right and exercise. The pharmaceutical industry has
a pill for every ailment. We work religiously on our physical condition,
but what about our spiritual condition? Despite all our efforts, physical
death will occur, but what is the end of our soul, our spirit?
Physical death is the inevitable end for each person, unless of
course Jesus returns before your time is complete. No amount of money
or power or diligence can prolong life indefinitely. Death is the enemy
of God, for it destroys life. God is the creator and giver of life, but God
has created in such a way that human beings have a limit.
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Death has been around since the beginning. In the Garden of Eden
there were two special trees. One was the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The other was the tree of life. Once sin entered the world, God
removed Adam and Eve from the garden so they could not eat of the tree
of life. They were forced to suffer the consequences of sin. Paul puts it
this way in Romans 6:21-23: “21So what advantage did you then get
from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things
is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to
God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.
23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Our hope is grounded in the free gift of God, which is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord. The promises of God are the foundation of our
hope. As we interact with others, I want you to be confident of the hope
we have. There are many passages in Scripture that speak to this
directly. I’ve listed twelve New Testament passages on the back of the
bulletin which address death and God’s promises for those who believe
in Jesus. There are others, but I had to stop somewhere. The message of
the whole Bible is one of God’s providence for us in spite of our sin. I
will only read a few verses from each passage so I invite you to read
them on your own. Discuss the passages with friends and family. The
next time someone is troubled by death, I want you to think of these
passages. If you can only remember one, think of John 14! And even if
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you can’t remember why, you will know where to look. You will be able
to run to Scripture knowing you will find good news!
John 14 is a favorite funeral text. The disciples are troubled here
because Jesus has just told them he is going away and they can’t come
with him right now. He offers them words of reassurance. He speaks of
his Father’s house with many dwelling places, saying “I will come again
and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” He
says “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” “Do not let your
hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.” This chapter is filled
with encouraging words and promises we can hang onto when we can’t
see the future or when the future we can see is full of trouble.
The next passage is only one verse, John 20:31, but it refers back
to the many signs recorded in the gospel of John written “so that you
may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that
through believing you may have life in his name.” These many signs
include John 3:16: “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life.” And 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.” And then there is
John 11:25 “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me
will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will
never die.”
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Jesus’ promise of eternal life is found throughout the gospel of
John. This life begins when we are born again by believing in Jesus, it
continues as we follow Jesus as Lord, living in the kingdom, and it will
not end when our physical bodies die, because those who believe will be
raised to eternal life.
One of the early Christian preachers was John of Antioch. In the
fourth century he wrote a famous sermon titled “Excessive Grief at the
Death of Friends.” In that funeral he taught that Christians should not
weep and wail as if death is the end, like the non-believers do. We have
the promises of Christ and the love of God to encourage us. Certainly we
may be sad at the temporary separation, but the “death of our bodies is
not a destruction but a renovation.” (72) Death is rest, death is peace,
and death is release from the woes of the world into the resurrection.
There are many passages in Scripture that speak of this hope.
Consider chapter eight of the book of Romans. Here we can read “there
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus;”
and “Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” We
learn that if we are children of God, “we are joint heirs with Christ;” and
Paul writes “for I am convinced that neither death, nor life…, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Throughout the chapter we read of the
hope we have in Christ Jesus - nothing is able to separate us from the
love of God, except our own refusal to believe.
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In 1 Cor 15 Paul argues for the resurrection, writing “but in fact
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have
died.” Christ has led the way for us, even into life after death. “The last
enemy to be destroyed is death.” (26) Paul speaks of the heavenly body
believers will have in the resurrection. “We will all be changed in the
twinkling of an eye.” (52) “Death is swallowed up in victory” (54).
In 2 Cor 4 Paul agrees that our outer nature is wasting away (14).
We are like clay jars (7), but we know that the one who raised the Lord
Jesus will raise us also with Jesus; our outer nature is wasting away, our
inner nature is being renewed day by day (16).
In Eph 2 Paul writes you were dead through the trespasses and sins
in which you once lived… but God made us alive together with Christ
(4). In Christ we are no longer dead and have nothing to fear from death
or the judgment.
Peter tells the believers in 1 Peter 1 “You have been born anew,
not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the enduring word of
God…. the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord
endures forever (25). Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we say at the
graveside, but our hope is not in the physical body, it is in the spiritual
body that we will receive as we believe.
Jesus teaches of the resurrection and of heaven in Matthew 22:2933 when some Sadducees challenge him on the idea of life after death.
“You are wrong,” Jesus says, “because you know neither the scriptures
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nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the
resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is
God not of the dead, but of the living.”
The book of Revelation has incredible word pictures of heaven. In
Rev 7 there are those who have come out of the great ordeal (14); John
observes that in heaven they hunger and thirst no more (16); and that
God will wipe away every tear (17)
In Rev 21 John witnesses the New Jerusalem; with God wiping
away every tear, and where death will be no more; mourning and crying
and pain will be no more (4). In Rev 22 the angel shows John the river
of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
with the tree of life on the banks and leaves for the healing of the
nations; God’s servants will worship him and they will see his face (4).
“These words, the angel said, are trustworthy and true.” (6).
As wonderful as heaven sounds, there is another reality that we
must also be aware of. When Rev 21:27 describes heaven it says
“nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or
falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life
(27). If some are written in the book, some are not, and this is a serious
concern. If we care about others, we must care not just for physical and
emotional needs, but about their eternal destination as well. And people
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facing death are often thinking about these kinds of questions more than
usual.
Jesus taught about the reality of two possible destinations in
Matthew 25, with three teachings about the kingdom of heaven. The first
is about the ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom. Five are not
ready, they run out of oil are shut out when the door is closed. In the
second a man entrusts his slaves with talents while he is away. When he
returns the worthless slave is thrown out into outer darkness, where there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Finally Jesus tells of the sorting
that will occur when the Son of Man comes in his glory (31ff). Nations
will be gathered and sorted – with some commanded to depart from him
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. These will go
away into eternal punishment, Jesus tells us, but the righteous into
eternal life (46).
I don’t want that for me. I don’t wish it for any of you. The thought
of it is so uncomfortable it is easy to ignore until someone dies, until
death is a real threat to us. Then we want to know, then we hope we
have the chance to make amends and get things right. How much better
to be ready to die at any moment, secure in the knowledge of the
promises of God, resting not on anything we have done but on God’s
great love for us.
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Death is the common fate of every living thing. Jesus said in
Matthew 10:28: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Christians can look to Christ for hope and encouragement in the face of
death. We have these passages to remind us of the love of God. Our faith
can free us from the fear, anguish and the anxiety of those who are
without eternal hope because they do not believe in Jesus Christ. When
we face death, it is an opportunity to share our faith and encourage
others with the teachings and promises we find in Scripture. For nothing
in all creation, not even death itself, is able to separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hell Matt 5:29; Matt 13:41,42