In loving memory of Maureen Platte (26/12/45 – 4/05/2024)
OPEN IN PRAYER
Death is a certainty that all of us must face one day.
Heb 9:27 Just as man is destined to die once…
Gen 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.
THE CERTAINTY OF DEATH
THE CERTAINTY OF DEATH
When we are younger, we often feel that we are immortal.
James 4:13-15 (NIV) Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life?
You are a mist that
appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
CERTAINTY OF JUDGMENT
Not only is death a certainty, but so is God’s judgment:
John 5:28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”
Death is not something for the child of God to fear:
Hebrews 2:14-15 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Death is not extinguishing the light… it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
NO FEAR
The shepherd king David wrote: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4)
What is the sting that death holds for some?
1 Cor 15:56 The sting of death is sin…
THE STING
As Christians, Jesus paid for our sins and so death loses its sting.
1 Cor 15:54-57 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?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
TASTED DEATH FOR ALL
“Jesus… suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Heb 2:9) teaches us the ‘substitutionary’ death of Jesus i.e. Jesus died in our place.
2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
TASTED DEATH FOR ALL
John 8:52 “… you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.”
Q: What does it mean that Jesus ‘tasted’ death for all?
A: One of the definitions of taste is “to become acquainted with by experience”. 1
So he experienced death on our behalf.
1 Merriam Webster Dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary)
HEAVEN ON EARTH?
Some people try to convince themselves that there is no heaven on hell – and that all the heaven (or hell) we will have is our life on earth.
D.L. Moody: “There are men who say that there is no heaven. I was once talking with a man who said he thought there was nothing to justify us in believing in any other heaven than that we know here on earth.
“If this is heaven, it is a very strange one – this world of sickness, sorrow and sin. I pity from the depths of my heart the man or woman who has that idea. This world that some think is heaven, is the home of sin, a hospital of sorrow, a place that has nothing in it to satisfy the soul. Men go all over it and then want to get out of it. The more men see of the world the less they think of it. People soon grow tired of the best pleasures it has to offer.” (Heaven ch. 1)
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HEAVEN?
WHAT AWAITS A CHRISTIAN WHO DIES?
Let’s look at the “no mores” in the kingdom of God that is to come:
NO MORE NIGHT
Rev 22:5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
NO MORE CURSE
Rev 22:3 No longer will there be any curse.
Rom 8:19-22 (NLT) For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
NO MORE CORRUPTION AND DECAY
Matt 6:20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy…
NO MORE SIN
Matt 6:9-10 ‘Our Father in heaven… your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’
Rev 21:26-27 The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
NO MORE SEPARATION FROM GOD
Rev 22:3-4… The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
NO MORE -SICKNESS
Rev 22:2 On each side of the river stood the tree of life… And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Francis Jane Crosby (1820-1915) wrote more than 9000 hymns, despite being blind. They include “Blessed Assurance,” “To God Be the Glory,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour,” “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” and “I Am Thine, O Lord”.
“I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you,” remarked one well-meaning preacher.
“Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind?” said the composer, who had only been able to see for her first six weeks of life.
“Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Saviour.”
NO MORE PAIN OR TEARS
“There will be no more… pain” (Rev 21:4). This includes physical and emotional pain. So the grief and pain when a Christian dies is for those left behind.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more … mourning or crying…
NO MORE THINGS WE DON’T UNDERSTAND
1 Cor 13:11-12 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Rev 21:3-4 There will be no more… death … for the old order of things has passed away.”
John Newton was a slave trader who became a Christian. He later wrote the words to one of the most well-known songs of all time – “Amazing grace”.
His dying words were: “I am still in
the land of the dying; I shall be
in the land of the living soon.”
NO MORE DEATH
NO MORE BAD MEMORIES
Have you got memories you’d rather forget? God will erase them.
Isa 65:17 “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”
INSTEAD THERE IS PEACE
Isa 57:2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
THERE IS REWARD
2 Tim 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
JOY
Shortly before Adoniram Judson, missionary to Burma, died he said:
“I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from his school.”
Psalm 16:11 (NKJV) … In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
REST
Rev 14:13 … Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on… they will rest from their labour…
Death is referred to as sleep in the Bible. When Stephen died, we read that “he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60).
ONLY ASLEEP
Jesus woke up those who slept in death:
Mark 5:39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”
John 11:11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
Sleep is a temporary condition. We fully expect the sleeping person to awake. So with the Christian who dies.
1 Thess 4:13-16 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose
again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
A TENT
A tent is just a temporary living place – not a home! The Bible calls our current body a tent.
2 Pet 1:13-14 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
When we die, we leave behind us all that we have and take with us all that we are.
The tent is left behind but the spirit lives on.
The new body we’ll receive at the resurrection is referred to as a house:
2 Cor 5:1-4 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands …
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
NEW EDITION
When American statesman
and former printer, Benjamin Franklin
was about to die, he wrote in advance
the epitaph to be on his gravestone:
“The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here... Yet the Work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.”
COME UNTO ME
D.L. Moody: "I met a man who confessed his soul had fed on nothing for forty years. "Well," said I, "that is pretty hard for the soul - giving it nothing to feed on!" And that man is but a type of thousands and tens of thousands today; their poor souls are starving.
This body that we inhabit for a day, and then leave, we take good care of; we feed it three times a day, and we clothe it, and take care of it, and deck it, and by and by it is going into the grave to be eaten up by the worms; but the inner man, that is live on and one, and on forever, is lean and starved."
"Christ is inviting you to come: "Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Oh, may we all find rest in Christ now! Do not let anything divert your mind, but make up your mind this hour that you will settle this great question of eternity."
ETERNAL LIFE
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This gift of eternal life is given by someone who cannot lie:
Titus 1:2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time
Jesus himself promised us eternal life when he said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
HOW CAN I HAVE THIS ETERNAL LIFE?
At the death of Lazarus, Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die…” (John 11:25-26)
You need to do something – you need to put your faith and trust in Jesus to be your Saviour.
WHAT MORE COULD HE DO?
D.L. Moody: “I was talking to a gray-haired man in my native town not long ago who, when I spoke to him about his soul, suggested that he would become a Christian when the Lord Jesus Christ came to him. He was waiting till Christ hunted him personally. And there is a class like him in every community.
Jesus is now seeking every lost person.
Luke 19:10 (NKJV) “For the Son of Man
has come to save that which was lost.”
WHAT MORE COULD HE DO?
“What more would you like Him to do for you than what He has done already? What would you like God to do more for us? He sent to us the prophets, and we murdered them. He sent His Son from Heaven to be a sacrifice for us…
Would you like Him to send His Son again to earth to suffer for your sins? My dear friends, what more are you waiting for? He has been looking for you and hunting for you from your cradle.” (D.L. Moody)
ARE YOU ONE OF JESUS’ SHEEP?
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)
PSALM 103 (verses 8, 10, 13-18): The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children - with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his commands.
COMMITTAL
It has pleased Almighty God to take from this world the soul of Maureen Platte.
We now commit her body to the grave; ashes to ashes, dust to dust in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life for all who trust in Christ, who will change our frail and mortal bodies to be like his glorious resurrection body, according to his mighty power by which he is able to transform all things.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labour. (Rev 14:13) ------- AMEN!
COMMITTAL
AUTHOR: Gavin Paynter
For more ministry downloads visit: https://agfbrakpan.com/ministry-archives.aspx
For more ministry downloads by Gavin Paynter visit:
https://agfbrakpan.com/ministry-archives.aspx?speaker=Gavin%20Paynter
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Biblical illustrations by Jim Padgett, courtesy of
https:// commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ Bible_Illustrations_contributed_by_Sweet_Publishing &
http:// freebibleimages.org
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the NIV:
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB: New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (http://www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations are taken from the ESV: Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.