Ever thought about why death feels so unnatural and final? Does God actually take our loved ones from us? How does your view of death shape how you live your life? Let’s wrestle with these big questions together.  Join us as Kent helps us dive into the hope Jesus offers.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Did you know originally gasoline was just a byproduct of creating Kerosene?  I wonder what the conversation was when the sales team came up with how to turn a profit on it… 

“We’ve cracked gas-o-lean conundrum!  Picture this, Met-tal tanks…”  

“Metal tanks?”

“Metal tanks!” 

“Hmm, that should work as long as you don’t put it near open flame or electrical”

“Oh no, it’ll be surrounded with electrical equipment and flames, but the flames will be VERY small…”

“Hmm…  Ok… we can probably make that work, just make sure any human is at least 50 yards away…”

“We plan on strapping them on top of the tank…”

“ok, ok…  hmm, well, as long as the environment is stable…”

“Yeah, the plan is to put wheels under it and hurl it at speeds of at the most, AT THE MOST 90 mph… but the roads will be super smooth, so…”

“yeah, that sounds a little dangerous…  I guess if I’m on the road by myself with the tank of highly explosive fuel, It will probably be fine as long as there’s some safety equipment around it…”

“for sure, it’ll be safe, we’re putting bags in it.”

“bags? how will they stop the potential for explosion”

“oh they won’t, they’re to protect your face from being ripped off in case you crash into someone else” “someone else, are you going to have other people around you?”

“well, not around you, they’ll be hurtling towards you at no more than 90 mph with their own metal tanks…”

[quiet resignation to the inevitable]

“Just do whatever you want…”

Have you ever thought about how crazy  humans are?  You know they say a teaspoon of water will drown you…  We’re like, “hmm, maybe I’ll fill a pool with that stuff and play in it then…”  

Ha

Humans have an incredible capacity to ignore the potential for death in the world around us…

I think this is because if we had to confront the potential for our own lives to be ended at every moment, it would completely cripple us.  There are people who are plagued with this kind of anxiety and they can’t leave their house…

Today, I want to short-circuit your ability to ignore death and instead put it under a microscope.  

b

I want to give you some theological perspectives on death.

1. “Death feels almost unnatural” 

ILLUSTRATION:

I don’t know if you have ever felt this way, but I remember one of the first times I was really confronted with a close personal death.  It was my grandpa Wagner.  I was really close with him and when he died I didn’t really have a way to cope with it.  I was an adult in ministry, I knew all the right answers that he was with God – he had been a Godly man who loved Jesus.  But apart from everything I “knew” I kept having this thought

“This doesn’t feel natural…”

That seems funny doesn’t it, but if you have lost a loved one, you know what I’m talking about, it doesn’t feel like it was meant to be this way…

So, I did what I always do – I took my questions to Jesus and to the scripture. (which by the way, should be your response too)

I started studying death in the scripture and that’s when I came upon something that I knew but had never really connected with deeply…

Listen to this…

Genesis 3:2-3

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Now here’s the deal, Adam and Eve don’t immediately die – that’s what this sounds like at first blush – if they eat the fruit they will die.

What does happen though is mankind enters into a cursed state

Genesis 3:19

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food

until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;

for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

God’s original intention for mankind does not include death.  Death is a consequence of mankind unhitching from God.

b

But there are echoes in our hearts of the good intentions of God.

Solomon identifies this desire in us by saying

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has also set eternity in the human heart…

Death doesn’t feel natural because you were created to live forever and something inside you still knows this…  It feels wrong because it is wrong!

b

This is why Jesus matters so much.

2.  “Death feels so final”

Illustration: 

It really does doesn’t it?  Death feels like a grand end.  The world keeps moving when someone dies too, which just amplifies the finality.  I can remember walking through Walmart after my dad had died feeling like my feet had been swept out from under me and no one else seemed even to care.  I stepped into a dressing room so I could let my tears out…

Death feels like an end.

the scripture says it this way…

Hebrews 9:27

27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment

Death is an end…  It is the in-between time(birth-death) when God uses the God sized hole in your heart to try and draw you to Himself.

Because, look at what the author of Hebrews says about Jesus coming into the world:

Hebrews 9:28

28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

or listen to 

Hebrews 2:14-15

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Jesus came to rescue us from the curse of sin and break the power the devil (the serpent) held over us, death.

b

Jesus came to set you free!

This is why it was VITAL for Jesus to raise from the dead – because his death broke the power and his life showed us we no longer had to be afraid.

Death is not final for the followers of Jesus!

3.  “Why would God take my loved one?”

ILLUSTRATION:

Some of the worst things people say are to those who have lost someone to death.  We say things like “God must have needed them more than we did” or “God must have needed an angel” or “it must have been the Lords timing.”

The assumption is God kills people whenever He wants and that this is all part of God’s grand plan.

Maybe…?

This idea is based on bad theology…  It is based on a handful of poetic passages (Job 14:5, Psalm 139:16) that are not trying to teach us authoritatively how to think about God.

b

-What the scripture does teach is 

-death is part of our fallen world.

-The world is full of wicked and sinful people.

-God has given people free will and we all make our own decisions (this is why Christians are taught to say “your will not mine”)

b

Scripture teaches death is a sting of sin, not a sting from God.

God came to rescue you from the effects of death…

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

There has been a lot of damage done to peoples faith because of this bad theology.  I think some of the worst is it’s caused people to look at God as the villain in their story instead of the victor.  Can I just share what I think God’s response is to death and the suffering we all endure when it occurs?  The best way to show it is to tell you a story:

Jesus had a really good friend who died.  His name was Lazarus and Jesus wasn’t there when he died.  Lazarus’ sisters take Jesus to task for this, “you could have healed him”.  This is when Jesus says the famous words, “I am the resurrection and the life”.  There is a peculiar little verse in this passage, the smallest verse in the whole bible.  Jesus knows he’s going to resurrect Lazarus.  He knows He is going to make it all right, but He sees everyone else weeping and the scripture says “he was deeply moved” look what the scripture tells us about Jesus:

John 11:35

35 Jesus wept.

Jesus knew He was going to restore Lazarus and still he wept with them.

God isn’t taking your loved ones from you, He’s weeping with you that death still is at work… but not for long

Jesus came to set us free, he said blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.  You don’t have to be tied to and by the fear of it.  You don’t have to ignore it anymore, you can overcome it…  Turn to Jesus today, come forward and accept him.  Let’s talk about salvation.

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