“Death From God’s Perspective”
Illustration:
• Ask if anyone is familiar with D.L. Moody (Northfield Ma. An evangelist of the 19th century)
• Thursday, December 21, 1899, after cutting short a Kansas City preaching engagement and returning home in ill health, D. L. Moody told his family, "I’m not discouraged. I want to live as long as I am useful, but when my work is done I want to be up and off."
• The next day Moody awakened after a restless night. In careful, measured words he said, "Earth recedes, Heaven opens before me!" His son, Will, concluded his father was dreaming. "No, this is no dream, Will. It is beautiful. It is like a trance. If this is death, it is sweet. There is no valley here. God is calling me, and I must go."
Introduction:
• Ecclesiastes: 3:1-15 “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. A time to give birth, and a time to die; A time to weep, and a time to laugh, A time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
• Although there is a time to mourn, if we understand death from God’s perspective then we will find that a time will come when we can dance again.
Proposition:
• In today’s sermon I am going to propose to you that from God’s perspective Death does not extinguish the lights of our lives; it puts out the lamp because the dawn has come!
Transition:
Right now this very moment, open your hearts and allow God to show you death from His perspective.
I. Dying was never the plan:
Illustration:
• As I stood over my grandmothers deathbed, I can remember thinking “We were not designed for this, there is nothing natural about death”.
• Have you ever heard someone at a wake say “They look so natural”? That’s ridiculous! What they mean is they almost look alive which would be natural.
• Death was not part of God’s plan from the beginning!
Scripture Verse:
• Genesis 2:16-17 “ The Lord God commanded the man, “you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die”.
• The origin of death was not part of God’s plan but rather the penalty of man’s rebellion.
Scripture Verse:
• John 11:35 “Jesus Wept”
o Jesus did not weep for Lazarus because He knew He shortly would raise Lazarus from the dead
o Jesus wept because we have to deal with death and dying at all.
Scripture Verse: (Paul)
• Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
• Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
o This is where the good news begins; the rest of the Bible is God reaching out to us!
Application:
To have a desire presupposes that fulfillment of that desire exists:
• If we thirst that would presuppose that there is water to quench that thirst
• If we hunger that would presuppose that there is food somewhere to fill our stomachs.
• CS Lewis once stated, because each and every person longs to live eternally, it presupposes its existence.
• That is exactly what God has done for us; He has given us the Hope of eternal life.
• The first thing we need to understand when considering death from God’s perspective is:
• God never wanted us to die; it was not part of the plan;
• From God’s perspective Death is a deliverance from a world of death / dying! Not an ending, but a beginning.
• A putting behind us, the penalty of our sin and moving into a life of true freedom.
Death does not extinguish the lights of our lives; it puts out the lamp because the dawn has come!
Transition:
• But not only was death from God’s perspective not part of the plan it is the…
II. Victory at the end a long, hard race:
Illustration:
• Often times I hear people say they wish they could go back in time and do it all over again. They say “The good old days”.
• Yet memory is simply a reconstruction (we forget about the bad and remember the good) and I believe that most of us when we say this have forgotten how hard it was to get where we are in the first place.
• It was once said by a great preacher “If I had my whole life to live over again, I don’t think I’d have the strength.”
• Life is a long, argeous race; it is not a dash but rather a marathon and the reason we always seem to look backward is because we see death from a strictly human perspective and not a divine one.
• I think far better than going back would be going forward from here in perfect health knowing what we know and retaining the lessons we have learned. God agrees! That is what He offers!
Scripture Verse: (Life is a long hard race…)
• Paul says: 2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Scripture Verse:
• John 19:30 Jesus said “It is finished”
o Discuss the events leading up to those words and how they illustrate our the difficulty of life.
o This is how God views our lives. The work is finished at death. It is not sad but joyous!
o The hard work, the long days, the stresses and complexities of life are finished and we have entered into the days of rest.
Application:
• The second thing we must understand concerning death from God’s perspective is that it is not the end of the good but of the difficult, and the beginning of the good.
God’s perspective: Death does not extinguish the lights of our lives; it puts out the lamp because the dawn has come!
• Transition: So we have seen that dying was never part of the plan and that death is the end of long hard race, lastly I want you to see that death from God’s perspective is…
III. Birth into Eternal life:
Illustration:
• Have you ever experienced a pregnancy? (Men think they have)
• During the pregnancy the baby is quiet at first, content with life in the womb.
• The baby is safe, comfortable, completely provided for and some say the baby can hear the voice of their mother and others around them.
• As they grow they begin to play and stretch, rolling around in the mother’s stomach.
• Then the time comes, there time in there world is up,
• Out of much pain and suffering the child is birthed into this world. The child is scared and the first thing it does is cry.
• Until it realizes that the voice it once heard in part it can now hear clearly.
• The love and comfort the child found in the sounds of a heartbeat it now finds in the reality of the comfort of its mothers arms.
• For it now knows fully what it had once only known in part, it has been embraced into the arms of one who loves it unconditionally.
Scripture Verse:
• 1 Corinthians 15:55 “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?”
• When we understand Death from Gods perspective we to will be able to say along with Paul, O death, where is your sting?
o Now let me show you what I mean, consider this same illustration again but rather from the perspective of death.
o In this life when we are young we are at peace
o We have our health, we have lives and we are comfortable
o We can hear God partially, when we go to church, read the scriptures and pray. We feel some security in God.
o Yet we continue to grow, play and stretch
o Until one day we find ourselves in the same place as that little child being birthed. We find our time in this world is up.
o We find ourselves confused, crying out ,hurting and completely lost.
o This is all we can see from this side of eternity. Only pain, suffering, death and loss.
o Yet on the other side of eternity there is a completely different picture:
o Out of the pain of death we are birthed anew
o The voice of God we heard partially now thunders fully and says:
o Rev. 21:5 “Behold, I am making all things new”,
Scripture Verse: Isaiah 25:8 “I will swallow up death forever. I will wipe away the tears from all faces; I will remove the disgrace of my people.”
• That perfect love and comfort we so longed for in this life are fully experienced in the loving embrace of God.
• And just as the mother of a new born child wipes away every tear so does Christ wipe away all the tears from our faces.
• For now we know fully what we only knew in part, and the scriptures come alive.
o As God says well done good and faithful servant, come receive your reward.
Application:
Death from God’s perspective is not the end but only the beginning; it is not the putting out of our light but rather the dawning of a new day.
Conclusion:
Today, I preached this sermon not with the intent of taking away your grief and pain, but rather that in your grief and pain you may find HOPE!
When we consider death from God’s perspective, things change completely. We see that:
• God really does care about us – Death was not part of the plan
• The work and hardships of life end and the rest begins – Death is the end of a hart race
• Life truly begins at death – We are born into eternal life
The apostle Paul I believe sums this up when he says “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
GOD LOVES YOU, GOD IS NOT MAD AT YOU, GOD DOES NOT HAVE A SIN SCORE CARD UP IN THE SKY.
• All that is required of you to receive this wonderful hope of life everlasting is that you believe that you believe that God loves you, that you believe that He wants the best for you, that you believe He gave His only Son so that you could live forever.
Close in Prayer…
