|
|
||
|
|
||
|
2 Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. What are you afraid of this morning? REVIEW: Last week we saw God’s answer to the fear of not being heard. We discovered together that God always listens; God hears. We also discovered that God has given us a great reminder of how to pray right at the end of our arms – our hands. Our thumb (the biggest finger) reminds us that we are praying to a BIG GOD. He wants us to make sure that He is the most important person in our lives. He is to be made “Holy” in our lives. Our index (pointer) finger reminds us that we are to ask God to be the KING of our lives. Prayer is one way that we submit to God’s authority in our lives. Praying is acknowledging that God is the One who can meet our needs. We ask Him to make His kingdom come into our lives. Our middle finger (the longest) represents our NEEDS. The reason we are drawn to prayer most often is because we have needs that we bring to God. After we have acknowledged who God is and where He should be in our lives we are ready to bring our needs to Him. The ring finger reminds us of our relationships. We are to bring our relational needs to God as well as our personal needs. Forgiveness is a huge issue in our relationships. As we ask God to give us the ability, strength and grace to forgive others it allows us to work on our relationships with them. Finally, the little finger (the most vulnerable) reminds us to pray for our weaknesses. We ask God to “lead us away from temptations and trials”. We discovered that God often wishes to lead us away from temptation but we fail to follow His directions. Our prayers should include time to talk to God about dealing with temptation. The fear of not being heard by God is a genuine fear that we often fail to recognize.
This
morning I want us to look at a more blatant fear – Are you afraid to die? Somebody said it this way: Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to do what it takes to actually get there! Part of overcoming the fear of death is understanding exactly what death is. Before we take on the fear, let’s talk for a few minutes about what we are afraid of… Most of us understand the word “dead”, D-E-A-D, but when we talk about “death”, D-E-A-T-H, it sometimes gets a little more complicated. The simplest definition for death is this… SEPARATION Don’t understand? Let me explain. When something dies it no longer has life. To be dead presupposes that something was actually alive first. So what happened? Life left. Life left and death came. When a plant dies – what made it alive separates from the plant. When an animal dies – it’s life separates from its body. When anything dies – what makes it “alive” separates from it and it becomes dead. When a business dies money, customers, employees, whatever keeps it alive separates from it. When a marriage dies (we call that divorce) two people separate. When anything dies, it means separation. And when a person dies it means life has simply separated from their body. Death means separation. There is physical death – we just talked about that. There is also emotional death – when all feeling is gone. Have you ever heard the phrase “I feel dead to them…”? But most importantly, there is spiritual death. Romans 6:23 tells us, When people sin, they earn what sin pays—death. Colossians 1:21 explains it this way: At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things you did were against God. The point: because we have all sinned that sin has separated us from God! That’s spiritual death. And until we address the sin problem we remain separated from God, spiritually dead. But here’s the good news: But now God has made you his friends again. He did this through Christ’s death in the body so that he might bring you into God’s presence as people who are holy, with no wrong, and with nothing of which God can judge you guilty (Colossians 1:22 NCV). The moment you accept God’s love and forgiveness through what Jesus did on the cross you’re sins are forgiven and the separation from God is gone – you are given eternal life (the opposite of death); you are no longer separated from God! The answer to spiritual death is to accept God’s eternal life. And that eternal life is the opposite of death, you are no longer “dead to” (separated from) God. The ultimate answer to death is Jesus Christ. Jesus offers eternal life. You don’t have to fear death if you know you have eternal life that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. However, even though we may have accepted God’s forgiveness and eternal life, we often still fear physical death. So this morning our focus is on physical death. How do we face the fear of dying? The issue is obviously not a new one. People don’t want to fear death. I’ve met very few people who actually wanted to die. Wanting to die is a sign that a person is not healthy. But fearing death can also be a sign of problems. Believe it or not I recently came across one website that offered to help you with your fear of death…for $987. (I’m afraid I would fear the bill more than then the fear of fear!) By the way, there is a psychological term for fearing death – it’s called necrophobia, the fear of death. Those who are obsessed with the fear of dying would have that problem. Maybe your fear isn’t that drastic or obsessive, but still you may fear death. People often fear death because they fear what causes death. Sickness, disease, accident – as one man I talked to years ago said it, it’s not death that’s my problem, it’s dying! People often fear death because of what we might call “unfinished business”. I would hate to die and leave behind problems for others to fix. We all want to make sure that our love ones are taken care of. Many are afraid of what’s next – after they die. The truth is we don’t have very many good examples of people who have died and lived to tell about it. Often what people are afraid of is the fear of the unknown. As I was preparing these thoughts Terrie brought up an interesting illustration: “Paul, remember our Lamaze (childbirth) classes? The reason we went through all of those sessions was to be prepared. The purpose of those birth classes was to help us know what was coming so we would not be afraid of the process. Once it was all explained to us, it made the whole thing much easier to deal with.” Sometimes we fear death simply because of false information. We’re told the wrong things about death and dying. That was the problem that the Apostle Paul faced as he wrote to some believers in a town called Corinth. We have is words in the New Testament epistle of First Corinthians. It seems the new believers in that church were being fed false information about death – and they were pretty confused. So near the end of his letter he straightens them out and in the process addresses their fear of death. Look with me at the first few verses of the passage… “Now since we preached that Christ was raised from the dead, why do some of you say that people will not be raised from the dead? If no one is ever raised from the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is worth nothing, and your faith is worth nothing. 1 Corinthians 15:12-14 Think about it. If there’s nothing after this life than why did Jesus rise from the dead in the first place? If no one has ever been raised from the dead that includes Jesus; and His resurrection is what ultimately brought about the ability to have our sins forgiven! Paul was addressing their greatest fear in verse twelve: that death was the end of it: when we die it’s all over, nothing more. We hear that today as well: remember the famous beer commercial “You only go around once in life so…” There is a fear of death because we often buy into the idea that this life is all there is. Let the Bible answer that one for you right now… there is more to life than just this life, there is eternity. The Apostle Paul takes a backwards approach to dealing with the issue in this passage. He gets a little sarcastic (well, maybe a lot sarcastic!) in this passage. He says if there is no resurrection then Jesus did not come back to life after the crucifixion, the Bible is a lie and our faith in all of it is useless. There’s only one problem with that kind of reasoning– Jesus DID come back to life after three days. He was seen by over 500 different people on many different occasions after His resurrection. Most of those who had seen Jesus physically after the resurrection were still alive when the Apostle Paul was writing this letter! The beginning of the chapter we’re reading lays it all out in detail. Here’s Paul’s answer to death: For the believer, death isn’t really death. It’s not over. There’s something more. There’s more than just the seventy or eighty years we hope for here on earth. There’s more! And Jesus is the proof! “But Christ has truly been raised from the dead—the first one and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised…in Christ all of us will be made alive again” (15:20, 22) Paul reiterates his point over and over again in this chapter. He explains that death means little to a true believer because what’s next is so much better! You know, even with all of the heartache and hurt here in this life, I like living! But when I begin to read about what’s next, I’m not worried about this life being over. You know all of the stuff in this life that causes us grief? This passage tells us that eventually Jesus is going to take care of all of it. “When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life, and then the end will come. At that time Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. Christ must rule until he puts all enemies under his control. The last enemy to be destroyed will be death” (15:23-26) Death will no longer be our enemy because we have eternal life. So we don’t have to fear death if we’re worrying about what happens next. But maybe the issue is not so much what happens after we die but what happens when we die. Paul addresses that question as well when he tells us WHAT REALLY HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE. What does it mean when a believer dies here on earth? What does DEATH MEAN TO A BELIEVER. First, death means heaven. When a believer dies it means he or she goes to heaven! I think this is where a lot of the confusion begins. We often have a pretty strange view of heaven. When I say “heaven” what comes to mind? Clouds…harps…angels…? That’s NOT how the Bible describes heaven. As a matter of fact, heaven is not even the real focal point of eternity. The Bible talks about a new heaven AND a new earth. When the Bible begins to describe heaven it doesn’t talk about clouds or harps – it talks about a literal city with people coming and going, serving God and enjoying a totally perfect environment. It will literally be heaven on earth! I know we don’t have lots of time this morning, but for a few moments, let me read to you what that new heaven and new earth will be like. The Bible tells us that heaven will be a place of perpetual life…no one will ever die in heaven. Revelation 22:1, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life. It was shining like crystal and was flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb coursing down the center of the main street. Ezekiel 47:9, Wherever this water flows, everything will live. Heaven will be a place of abundant life: Revelation 2:2, .On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. Heaven will be were God is! Revelation 4:2 … and before me was a throne in heaven, and someone was sitting on it. Revelation 22:1, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life. It was shining like crystal and was flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb Heaven will have a real city: Revelation 21:1-2,Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and there was no sea anymore. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride dressed for her husband. On top of that, Jesus tells us that heaven is where believer’s will live with God… John 14:2-4, There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there.” We get to live in God’s house! That’s heaven. If you want to read more about heaven just turn to the very last chapters in the Bible, Revelation 21-22. It’s all there. Heaven means a real place. When we die we don’t just “float”. We don’t just “sleep”. We go to a real heaven and someday God is going to recreate this earth and place that heaven here on that new earth! What really happens when a believer dies? What’s going to happen when you die? You’re going to a REAL PLACE! Death means heaven for the believer. But death also means CHANGE! Not finish but change! Let’s go back to the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians…look at verse 35. “But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?” Foolish person! When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow.” (15:35-36) The point: We keep trying to compare what’s here with what’s there? When we get to heaven we will be changed. We will be different. Just as what comes up out of the ground isn’t exactly the same as the seed you planted – when we die we get something new! We sort of plant this defective body and then get a better one! We get “new and improved” heavenly bodies! All those things about you that you don’t like – and I’m not just talking about the physical stuff – all of that will change because we won’t have to deal with this defective, sinful body that we live it now! We don’t have to fear death if we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We may not want to die yet, but when God determines that it’s time – Death means heaven – forever! Death mean change – for the better! One other thing… Death means PURPOSE! It’s nice to know that we don’t have to fear death. It’s nice to know we have something to look forward too “later on”. But the fact of heaven also gives us a PURPOSE FOR LIVING BEFORE WE DIE! The very last verse in the chapter tells us: “So my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything change you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.” (15:58) Doesn’t that make sense now? Paul is telling us that because of heaven we have a LOT of work to do now! And what we do now matters! Don’t lose focus. While we are working for the Lord here on earth don’t forget that it’s all about what’s next. This life is just preparation for the next life that’s going to be so much better! Stand strong: don’t let anyone or anything convince you that growing in your relationship with the Lord and serving Him is a waste of time! Death brings purpose. This past week I spend several days in Northern California visiting a church and speaking at its missions conference. Tuesday was really the only “working day” I had to prepare for this morning. We needed to get the discovery packs ready. I wanted to get out a letter to everyone. There was just a lot to do. So I woke up Tuesday morning filled with purpose. I had a lot to accomplish before bedtime. And I knew that each thing I did was important for this morning’s service. Every moment counted. When I was tempted by distractions I weighed each one against what I knew was most important. And then I acted. As a result – everything is ready for this morning. Tuesday had a LOT of purpose because I was looking forward to Sunday. I was preparing for today! Well, one of these days God is going to call us to heaven. He’s going to tell us that our time here in this life is up. We don’t know if that will happen today, tomorrow or a few thousand tomorrows from now. What we do know is that we only have so much time on this earth to make an impact on eternity. And we don’t have much time! This life goes by way too fast! So we have to live “on purpose”. Knowing I will someday die – makes me want to make every moment count. Mark Twain said it this way, “A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” For the believer death means we win! That’s how Paul put it… “Death is destroyed forever in victory.” “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your pain?” …But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (15:58) Do you fear death? You don’t have to fear death if you are a believer.
|
||
| For information on graphics and PowerPoint for this or any other message on our site, contact Paul Newell at paul@familyfellowshipchurch.com. | ||
|
(c) Paul Newell 2003 FamilyFellowship Church P.O. Box 465, Beaumont, CA 92223 |
||
