We have all experienced death in one way or another. The age old questions, what next? It is easily answered in the Bible. For the Christian belief, there are two deaths. The one we undergo when we accept Christ, and the one for this human body. Note, I only said for the body, not the Spirit and soul that came from God.
For Christians, there is nothing to be feared about death. Eternal life is what awaits the believer. This is a promise from Almighty God. I realize death is the last thing anyone wants to think of let alone discuss. But the only real concern we have is not being with the one’s we love. The separation from those we hold dear. But we have been assured that we will go on living, as Jesus proved after he rose.
As Christians we know there is more than just an end to this life. Paul states in 2nd Corinthians, “To be absent the body is to be present with the Lord”. Ecclesiastes 12. 7 states, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. To be in the eternal presence of our creator, free of the cumbrance of a mortal body and free from sadness and ailment.
Jesus Himself showed through His resurrection, there is life after death. A real and abundant life with our Lord forever. Just think about that for a moment. The word forever, not ending, eternal. Our lives are short and so fragile. Nothing like the eternal life God has offered to all who will accept Christ. There is no other way to be saved from eternal separation from God than our belief in the one Holy son of God. Jesus said, He is the way the life and the truth, he who believes in me shall have everlasting life.
ACTS 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Salvation is given freely from God by His grace. Through Jesus Christ we are free from our past. So, let the past be just that, the past. We can live in the new life we have been given. We can rejoice in the paradise we will be entering. What a glorious future awaits .
This is also a promise. The Lord is sure to keep His promises, and we would be wise to claim them all. What does it cost anyone to just believe? Do any of us lose our freedoms? No, on the contrary, we gain more freedom. Freedom from the bondage and price of sin. Freedom from worry as we will know that God is always working. He doesn’t take vacations or a day off. He is always in control and only what He allows to happen, will happen in this world. We have this told to us in our Bibles more than once. He allows those in charge to be there. He allows the weather to be what it will be. He allows all things for His glory. We do not and never will understand the mind of God. Our only concern is obedience. Simple obedience to His commands. Loving one another being one of the highest.
Jesus came to earth to serve and bring about salvation. This is proven by His actions. Remember when He washed His disciple’s feet? That was an act of servitude, to show that if the master can do this to His servants, we can each certainly serve each other. By helping your neighbor, friend, or anyone who needs it, we can show servitude.
Now what does any of this have to do with death you may wonder? Well it’s like this. Our faith, our belief in Jesus as the Son of God and our willingness to proclaim Him has brought us salvation. But that is only part of our job. We must follow His example, live according to His word. We must be willing to obey God and act like Christian that are alive and not Christians in name only. On judgement day, we will face the Lord and when He looks at us, we are judged on the actions we did for Him in this life. After all, we won’t be judged according to sin, we will be judged according to our works. Our sins have been forgiven and remembered no more, but our work in the Lord will be tallied. The death I am focused on is not the natural death of the body. I would like to make certain of the understanding that death in our Christian life means death to the old life we had. After we were saved, we became a new creature, clean and pure. We are to stay dead to the old life, to sin. We are to live in the new life. This is done by our actions and even the way we think.
Remember that when Jesus returned on the third day, He ate and drank and was evened touched. Our new bodies will be different from what we have now, but not like spirits or ghosts. We will experience perfection in a way we could never have imagined. The future that God has for us is great, even as the condemnation is more than we could imagine. Gone are the old reactions to situations. Gone is the response we would have given to an evil act in our old life. We are told to live a new way. The Bible instructs us in the Gospels how to live. Jesus was very informative on this matter. Forgive, so you will be forgiven. Love one another as Jesus has loved us. Do unto others, well you know the rest. We are to serve our God with our focus being on the unseen. On the spiritual world. That after all is where our battles really are. We are to be examples of Christ, this is how we bring about new believers. Our actions and our lives testify to the glory of God and our savior Jesus. By our living the Holy word for all to see, we demonstrate who God is. This is the way we overcome in this world.
So as you can see, when I speak of death in this sermon, I am speaking of death to sin, to the trappings of this world and of Satan. Since we have died to the old way of life, we should live accordingly and not relive the old life. It is behind us, we are forgiven and the Lord has claimed us. Remember, the Lord has forgiven you of your sins, you may have the memory, but that is all it is, just a memory. Do not let the lies of Stan make anyone relive or think they still have their sins upon them. What God says has been forgotten by Him is.
Acts of kindness, acts of love, and reactions to those who may anger us. These are ways we can follow the path of Christ. Living for Him and in Him glorifies God the Father. Let us then point our lives in a heavenly direction with whole hearted love for our God and Savior, and try our best to please the Lord with the way we live. Live as we are instructed, being humble, full of faith and in loving communion with all. We all have this choice to make, we can choose either road we want, salvation or destruction. The Lord has given us free will, two roads to walk, which one we choose is up to us.
AMEN