Victory over Death

SERMON OCTOBER 27

VICTORY OVER DEATH

 

 

My text today comes from the apostle Paul’s second letter to the Christians at Corinth. Listen to his words, or read along with me:

 

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1-4 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

 

“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

 

Let me repeat that last verse for emphasis: “We do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

 

I could give you the statistics of how many people – even those in church pews – are afraid to die. But I won’t bother to do that because if YOU are afraid of death, then for you that statistic is 100%. But the question about who is afraid of dying is a reasonable question, especially in this sanctuary because – and I am only guessing now – the average age of those living here at Ashwood is mid-eighties. And for us, death is not so much a distant eventuality as it is a much closer reality.

How many of our friends, family, and acquaintances have died in the last 12 months? Some of you here are ill with a disease that will likely take your life. You might wonder if you even have twelve months to live. And I also know many of you are relatively healthy, and you expect to live not only 12 months, but even another several years.

 

But of the dozens of men and women who have lived and died at Ashwood since it opened in 2015, most of them were relatively healthy when they suddenly died. It was that way for my mother. She ate dinner on July 31. I was told she joked with some of the women in the elevator on her way up to her apartment. And during the night she suddenly died of a brain aneurysm.

 

I don’t want to get any further into today’s message before first assuring everyone that this is a message of HOPE – hope as it is defined by the New Testament writers. Hope, in the New Testament, means to have a ‘confident expectation’ about something God has promised. And so, my goal for today’s message is to leave each of you with a “confident expectation” of God's promise to all of His true children regarding death and what follows afterward. A confident expectation of a ‘forever’ joy, peace, love, and life awaiting you on the other side of the grave.

 

The important phrase I just used is ‘God's true children.’ The New Testament defines God's true children as ONLY those who have placed their obedient faith in the sacrificial and atoning work of Jesus Christ who died on Calvary’s cross and rose from the dead three days later. If you are NOT living today within that specific definition of what it means to be true children of God, then I implore you, please pay attention to this message because the God who loves you ‘to the moon and back’ (to use a modern colloquialism) – the God who loves you to the moon and back wants to appeal to you through this message one more time. Perhaps for you the last time.

 

We all need to know that there are only two groups of people living on this planet: The Lost, and The Rescued.

 

The Lost are those who have willfully rejected Jesus Christ as their only Lord. They’ve never placed themselves under His absolute authority, having confessed to Him their sins, following Him in baptism, and given Him their hearts.

 

OR, the Lost have done all those things with their mouths and in their minds, but never REALLY in their hearts. They are among the many of whom Jesus spoke in Luke 13, They will say to the Lord on that day: We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; Depart from Me, all you evildoers.’  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Luke 13:25-28).

 

But for those who are in the second group – the Rescued – Scripture promises you that you have NO reason to fear death. None. Zero.

The apostle Paul, speaking of God the Father to the Christians at Colossae – and the Christians here at Ashwood Meadows: (Colossian 1:13-14): “He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Christian – I hope you caught that. Because of your relationship with Jesus, the Father has ALREADY transferred you into the kingdom of Jesus. Already. Not some future experience, but now. This moment. And all you and I are waiting for is to close our eyes in death when we will IMMEDIATELY open them in that eternal kingdom.

What is there to fear in THAT?

Now listen to what Paul said about our immediate entrance into God's eternal kingdom: (2 Corinthians 5:1-8) “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. . . . Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight— we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

For many children on the first day of kindergarten, the little boys and girls are full of excited anticipation. Many, to be sure, are nervous. They don’t know what to expect. Some will cling to mom or dad who brings them to the school classroom. Some will cry out loud when mom or dad leaves them with their teacher.

 

I think death for the Christian will be something like that. We will lie on our deathbed, knowing the proverbial sands in the hourglass are rapidly disappearing. We might be a little nervous, but when we remember God's promises to the Christian – only a few of which I have quoted today – when we remember His PROMISES as we draw our last breath, we will have every good reason to take our last breath with excited anticipation of closing our eyes in death and suddenly opening them in eternal life.

But there are those in the pews who might argue within themselves, “I am such a bad person. You don’t know what all I have done in the past. How horrible my life was. How can God really forgive me?”

Well, let’s let the infallible, inerrant, and wholly true and inspired word of God answer that question. Here is what God tells us through Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth – a church FILLED with those with sordid pasts:

 

“Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, HCSB) 

Please – all of you seated in this sanctuary, please hear this. This is important: Despite the litany of damnable sins Paul cites in the text I just read – the Holy Spirit immediately focuses our attention on the good news in verse 11: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” 

I researched the meaning of the Greek words Paul used in this text and were translated into English. “You were washed,” means the person’s sins were completely, thoroughly, utterly cleansed through their initial baptism and ongoing confession and repentance of their sins.

 

“You were sanctified,” means God had purified them from those sins. He Himself had pronounced them ‘pure,’ set them apart for His work. He declared them to be holy because they were covered with the sacrificial blood of Jesus.

 

And finally, Paul tells them, “You were justified,” meaning, God had pronounced them to be righteous, innocent, and without guilt. And if GOD Himself pronounces us to be without guilt – He means what He says and He says what He means. God declares the penitent sinner to be righteous and innocent and without guilt. Period. Full stop. End of sentence. Don’t argue with Him.

For the true Christian, death is like walking through the door leading out of your apartment. THAT is what the death of the body is like for the Rescued, for the Christian, the faithful follower of Christ – walking through the door leading from this life into life eternal. Immediately in the presence of God. No intermediate steps. No such thing as what some call ‘soul-sleep.’ No further cleansing or purging of our sins – just absent, and then present with God.

 

So, why would the Rescued fear death when what we have waiting for us on the other side of that door is what St John wrote for us in the last chapters of Revelation? Eternal health. Eternal safety from our enemies. Eternal joy where there is no longer any death, or sickness, or loss or pain.

 

Listen! Most of you have read the end of the Book! And if you haven’t, open your Bible today and read those last two chapters of Revelation. Then turn back to the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. Here is Isaiah 25:8-9:

“He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

Oh, hear that again. Right now, we are on this side of eternity’s door waiting for the fulfilment of the promise our Holy God made to all who are His by faith in Christ. And then Isaiah tells us by the same infallible Holy Spirit, God will swallow up death for all time and wipe all of our tears away. Oh, yes! We will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.

 

You might remember the history of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha. You’ll find the story in John 11:21-27. The text tells us Lazarus had been dead four days by the time Jesus arrived. Martha ran to meet Jesus when she’d heard He had arrived. We pick up the text in verse 21: “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

 

Most people our age living in America know the name Harry Houdini. He was a famous escape artist in the early 1900s. He could free himself from handcuffs, chains, ropes and straitjackets, sometimes even when underwater. He escaped from sealed coffins, riveted boilers and a variety of other ‘inescapable’ contraptions. On Halloween night in 1926, as he lay dying from a ruptured appendix, Houdini told his wife that if there was any way out of death, he would find it.

 

What Houdini did not know – as most of humanity does not know, even some in church pews and pulpits – NO ONE has the power to conquer death except the Son of God whose death on Calvary finally and forever conquered death.

 

Jesus raised Himself from death, and it is Jesus alone who will raise every man and woman who has ever died – including Harry Houdini. Christ will raise them all from death. The Bible tells us some He will raise to eternal life; Some He will raise to eternal damnation. And it is only what men and women do in THIS life with Jesus that will determine to what destiny they are raised.

 

To you who have truly made Jesus Lord of your heart, as well as of your mouth and mind, listen one more time to the infallible words of St Paul to all faithful believers. Listen to the words of God that should generate a confident expectation of what lies ahead for each of us when we close our eyes for the last time:

 

(1 Corinthians 15:50-58) “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Are you afraid to die? Please, if you are and not yet a true child of God, ask God's forgiveness of your sins. Make the decision today to place your trust in Jesus’ sacrificial death to pay the penalty your sins so richly deserve. Be baptized. And make it your goal to obey His commandments for the rest of your life.

 

And if you’re already a true child of God, then be of good courage, KNOWING that when you are absent from the body, you are home with the Lord.

 

You can take courage in that because we walk by faith, and not by sight.