Funeral Lynn Cameron.
Death is not a popular topic of conversation and people in general avoid having to deal with it. We cannot however avoid death as somewhere along the line we are confronted with our own mortality, and we face questions that at times we think there are no answers for.
We are all faced with death.
None of us can say that we will be alive tomorrow.
James 4:13-16.
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. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
Hebrews 9:27.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
Why do we die?
Romans 5
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned………………………
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Disobedience brought Death.
The Lord warned man that the consequences of disobeying His command would be death
Genesis 2:16-17.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat
of it you shall surely die.
Disobedience brought Death.
God ordained for man to die.
Genesis 3:22-24.
And the Lord God said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
What is God’s remedy for sin and death?
John 10
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Death.
It is not good for fallen man to live too long. Genesis 6:1-3. Then the Lord said, My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.
You may think it gives a person more time to repent, but
76% of Christians decided to follow Jesus Christ before the age 16.
85% of Christians decided to follow Jesus Christ before the age 21.
The older you get the harder your heart gets.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.
Death.
God instituted death as a blessing to grant redemption from this body that is under sin’s curse.
Romans 7:23-25.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 8:23.
We ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
Hebrews 2:14,15.
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 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Why do we have to be “Born Again”
John 3:1-5.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do except God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
To be “Born again” you have to die. Jesus said “He who loves his life will lose it”
To be “Born again” you have to die. Jesus said “He who loves his life will lose it”
John 12:24-25.
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
To be “Born again” you have to die.
To be “Born again” you have to die.
In fact the Christian walk starts with a burial.
Colossians 2:12.
Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
How can we enter God’s Kingdom?
Luke 23:39-43.
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
God can’t help people who think they are good.
Four vital things that took place in this man’s life as he hung on the cross next to Jesus.
1. He realised that he was a sinner.
Mark 2:15-17. (NLT) Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, Why does he eat with such scum? When Jesus heard this, he told them, Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.
God can’t help people who think they are good.
Matthew 5:20.
But I warn you unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
Matthew 21:28-32.
..“I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do.
For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.
2. He took responsibility for his sin.
Often people blame someone else for their actions.
Luke 23:41. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.
Genesis 3:13,14. And he said, Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, The woman you put here with me she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
Blaming others.
Adam blamed Eve and indirectly blamed God.
Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit!
Eve blamed the serpent. Then the Lord God asked the woman,
What have you done?
The serpent deceived me!
Accepting responsibility for your sin is vital.
Peter.
Luke 5:4-8.
Simon answered, Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!
Accepting responsibility for your sin is vital.
The Prodigal son. Luke 16:20-24.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
3. He acknowledged Jesus as King.
Luke 39:42.
Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus isn't a way, He is the way.
Acts 5:12.
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
Galatians 2:21.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
4. He confessed Jesus openly.
John 12:42-43.
Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.
Matthew 10:32-33.
Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.
But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
Death for the Child of God.
Why did Jesus weep at the tomb of Lazarus?
I know we can extract different truths from the same passage, but my persuasion is that Jesus wept not because Lazarus died (He was going to raise him to life and had purposely delayed coming until he had been dead for 3 days)
I believe that Jesus wept because they did not see beyond the grave.
Although we grieve at the death of a child of God, we do not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.
Death for the child of God is rest, falling asleep in Jesus.
Paul’s perspective on death.
Paul’s perspective on death.
Philippians 1:20-26.
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me.
Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
God’s perspective on death.
Psalm 116:15.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants
Isaiah 57:1.
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil..
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