What Happens after you Die?

What happens to us after we die – the Christian and the unbeliever? This question might not be on top of most of our minds, but I find myself thinking of it more often now than I did when I was 20. Or 30. Or even 60. Truth is – and I don’t mean to be morbid –statistically speaking, in the next ten years most of us will be gone from this life and will have entered the next.

 

That’s why today I want to focus our attention on what God has told us about the so-called ‘hereafter.’ I felt impelled to this subject because there is no more important question for the Christian and for the non-Christian than what happens to us when we die. And while people will come up with all kinds of answers to that question, only the CORRECT answer leads to everlasting life. The wrong answer leads to everlasting agony. ‘Everlasting’ means just what it sounds like: Forever. No end point. Eternal.

 

So, may God teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

At the outset of today’s message, let me be clear: The correct answer to that all-important question is found only in what God tells us is the correct answer. And that answer is forever linked with His words found only in the book we call the Holy Bible. I understand that most of humanity, and even a large portion of those who attend church each week – a large majority of men and women do not believe the Bible we have in our hands is the actual inerrant and infallible word of the Almighty God to us. But that should not surprise anyone because God requires a lot from all of us – things like personal holiness and obedience to His commandments. And because of our inherited sin nature our flesh rebels against His commandments, we’d rather ignore them or dilute them to fit our preferred lifestyles.

 

Nevertheless, God implores us through Moses: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

 

It is beyond the scope of today’s message to review the many evidences that prove the inerrancy, infallibility, and full inspiration of the Bible. Some of us examined those evidences several months ago when we studied how we got our Bibles. So, for the sake of time, let it simply suffice to say that it is irrational to think that the One who simply spoke into existence the entire universe and everything in it – it is irrational to think this same omnipotent Creator cannot ensure that what He spoke through His prophets and apostles is not the same message we have today in our Bibles.

 

There is, however, one more piece of evidence that proves the Bible’s full trustworthiness that we didn’t discuss during our study. We need to consider it now, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ places God’s final and definitive seal on the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy and infallibility. How so? One reason is because the incarnate God – Jesus – fulfilled HUNDREDS of Old Testament Messianic prophecies, thereby proving Scripture’s supernatural accuracy.

 

Mathematician Peter Stoner examined only eight of the specific Messianic prophecies and estimated the probability that one person could fulfill all eight by chance to be one in 10 followed by 17 zeros.

 

Christ’s resurrection proves He is God incarnate (see for example Romans 1:4). And as God incarnate, He repeatedly told His listeners that the Old Testament was God’s fully authoritative word. For example, He said: “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35); “[God’s] word is truth” (John 17:17); “Not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18); And after His resurrection, He explained to His disciples how the Old Testament Scriptures testified about Him (Luke 24:27, 44–45).

 

Furthermore, because God incarnate authorized the apostles to bear witness of Him and His words, their words are just as authoritative as the Old Testament writers and prophets. For example, Jesus told His apostles: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit… will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26); And “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” John 16:13.

 

So, that’s why Christ’s resurrection is so vital to the question of what happens to us after we die because if Jesus did not rise from the grave, then Christianity’s claim of its uniqueness among all other faiths and non-faiths collapses like a house of cards. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then we have absolutely no assurance that God’s answer to the question about what happens to us when we die is the only correct answer.

 

So, back to our original question about our eternal destinies. Let me first quickly say what Scripture tells us does NOT happen when we die. First, we do not cease to exist at death. Neither do our bodies simply decay to dust and our consciousness dissolves into nothingness. Neither is our consciousness absorbed into the universe. I’ve spoken to people – even recently – who believe such lies, and I reference now only a few Biblical texts that prove them to be lies. You can examine them later for yourselves: Genesis 5:24, 15:15, 35:29; Job 19:25-27; Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19.

 

Neither do we enter a cycle of reincarnation. Some scriptures that prove that to be a lie are Hebrews 9:27 and Daniel 12:2, among many others. Nor is it true that everyone is saved simply because God is a God of love and would never send anyone to an eternal hell. That heresy, called ‘Universalism’ or ‘Universal Salvation’ is also repudiated by God’s word, including the few I cited already in the last few moments.

 

Listen, please. Those who die believing any of those lies will discover to their unending horror that they have been beguiled by Satan even as Eve was beguiled in the Garden when he caused her to doubt God’s word. And we know the rest of that story, don’t we? We’re still LIVING with the rest of that story because humanity has been swallowing the Serpent’s lies ever since that moment. That’s why it’s impossible to understand world history or our own personal histories without understanding how Genesis 3 affects us to this very day.

 

So, what happens to us when we die? I will not speak much about the destiny of the lost, of those who knew of Jesus but rejected Jesus. I won’t speak much about their destiny except to say these few things:

 

God warns humanity in multiple places throughout His word that the unbelieving dead will be forever separated from God in a place of agony known as the Lake of Fire. The apostle John wrote about what he saw in his infallible vision: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life . . . then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15).

 

The story Jesus told of the Rich Man and Lazarus also serves to answer the question of what happens to the lost when they die. If you need to refresh your memory about that story, you’ll find it in Luke 16. That story teaches several important lessons, but for the sake of time, here are only a few: First, those in hell are in continual agony on flames. Continual. It never ends. Second, those in hell have full memory of what their lives were like before they died. Third, they are fully aware of where they are. And finally, in addition to his physical pain, the Rich Man suffered intense mental anguish, knowing there was no hope whatsoever that he could ever escape hell.

 

A few days ago, I spent several minutes perusing one of the old America’s Got Talent performances on YouTube. Within a few bars of the song the female contestant sang – and throughout the song – the entire audience (there must have been thousands of them) the entire audience was on its feet, clapping their hands in the air and their bodies bouncing with the music. And as the camera scanned the auditorium it seemed all of them – ALL of them – were singing along with the lyrics. Here is part of what they were singing:

I'm on the highway to hell/On the highway to hell/Highway to hell
I'm on the highway to hell/No stop signs, speed limit/Nobody's gonna slow me down/Like a wheel, gonna spin it/Nobody's gonna mess me around
Hey Satan, payin' my dues/Playing in a rocking band/Hey mama, look at me/I'm on the way to the promised land/Woo!

 

I listened only long enough to grasp what the woman and the audience were joyously singing. As I said, there must have been thousands in that audience, happily singing they’re on the highway to hell.

 

Listen, please. It is only God’s mercy that He makes the destiny of the unbeliever unmistakable. Jesus warned: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” John 5:24 “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23; And “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment.” Hebrews 9:27;

 

It is His mercy that He makes it clear because He is not wishing for ANY to perish, but rather that they repent of their sins and turn to Christ for complete pardon and eternal forgiveness.

 

Now, before we turn attention to what happens when the Christian dies, let me first say this because I often speak with faithful Christians who are unsure of their ASSURED destiny with Christ. They are unsure because they believe their past sins have earned them God’s eternal disfavor.

 

But if that’s true, then God’s word is not inerrant and infallible, and it cannot be trusted to tell us the truth about anything. But thanks be to God, we CAN trust it to be 100% accurate in all that it says – including its warnings to the unbeliever and its promises to the believer.

 

The apostle Paul called himself the ‘foremost of sinners.’ Yet he is the same man who wrote: “For this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” 1 Timothy 1:16 It was the same ‘foremost of sinners’ who also wrote: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

 

Christian – enough doubting God’s promises to you. And so, what happens to the Christian after death?

 

According to God, we immediately enter His presence. There are no intermediate stops in a fictitious place called Purgatory or where we spend time in what is called ‘soul sleep.’ Listen to the apostle writing infallibly and inerrantly: 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 “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.”

 

The Lord’s promise to the repentant thief is even more direct: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

 

And just as there is consciousness in hell, there is consciousness in heaven. I think now of the great cloud of witnesses, those heroes of faith in heaven who surround us in this great amphitheater of life in which we run the race of faith. I think of the martyred saints under the altar in Revelation 6 who cry out to God to avenge their blood. I think of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration conversing with the Lord. Yes, Christians are fully aware of where they are when they die. And we will rejoice every moment throughout eternity.

 

My time has run out, but I don’t want to close this message without speaking at least briefly about the rewards Christians will receive in our next life. God speaks often of them, and one of the many clear references is this one in 1 Corinthians. The context is the work we do for Christ in this life: (1 Corinthians 3:5-15)

 

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor . . . like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

 

An entire sermon series can be built around this text, but for the sake of time, I want us to see at least these three points: First, the one who tells others the gospel and the one who later nurtures what was told are BOTH necessary to the fruit God Himself brings forth. Without planting there’d be no need for watering. Without watering, the planting would be useless.

 

Second, God doesn’t only use preachers, authors, teachers, or missionaries to build His Kingdom. The housewife and the blue-collar worker who are faithful to Christ and examples to their neighbors are just as useful to God as the preacher or choir director.

 

Finally for our purpose, unless our work is founded and centered on Christ alone, we will not share in any rewards. That’s the whole point of building His Kingdom with the right materials. At the Judgement Seat of Christ, when Jesus examines our work as to how and why we did what we did – our motives, how diligently we worked for Him, if our walk contradicted our words, and so forth – when the Lord Jesus examines our works with His eyes of flame – what was done with wrong motives and not fully for Him will be burned away. (See Revelation 2:18-19).

 

This Corinthian text has nothing at all to do with salvation or, as some claim, Purgatory. Jesus secured our salvation and our full cleansing of sin on Calvary’s cross. This text has everything to do with the level of rewards we will receive for our work for Christ.

 

I will close with this summary of what happens when we die: The one who rejects Christ will himself be rejected by Christ and will immediately upon death enter hell – and ultimately the Lake of Fire – where there will be a conscious and eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

But the one who receives Christ by faith and lives according to His commandments will immediately upon death enter heaven where he will live eternally, in conscious peace and joy with the Lord. And this is what every Christian can expect about our new home:

 

Isaiah 25:6-8 “The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples . . . And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. ⁸ 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 . . . 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.”

 

Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.